Numerical simulation of a complete charging-discharging phase of a shell and tube thermal energy storage with phase change material

Fornarelli, Francesco; Ceglie, Vito; Fortunato, Bernardo; Camporeale, Sergio Mario; Torresi, Marco; Oresta, Paolo; Miliozzi, Adio

doi:10.1016/j.egypro.2017.08.220

Cited by 30 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 15 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The stabilization phase consists in flowing the HTF through the internal duct increasing its temperature from 293K to 473 K with a ramp of 180K=h and then maintaining the temperature constant. This first phase has been used also to calibrate the insulator width (32 mm), as reported in Fornarelli et al [55]. Thus, the heat exchange is purely conductive.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 97%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Convective Effects in a Latent Heat Thermal Energy Storage

Fornarelli

Camporeale

Fortunato

2019

Heat Transfer Engineering

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Convection within a latent heat thermal energy storage (LHTES) shell-and-tube device filled with phase change material (PCM) has been studied by means of numerical simulations. Both, the heat transfer fluid and the PCM mass, momentum and energy equations are solved and coupled with a conjugate heat transfer model. The study highlights three specific zones within the PCM: the top convective-dominated part, the curvilinear solid-liquid interface, and the bottom conductive-dominated part. The PCM melts from the top to the bottom, therefore the main mechanism of melting appears to be confined in the top part of the solid PCM. However, the flow details reveal a convective cell that includes the whole melted PCM from the top to the bottom of the PCM enclosure. Even though the problem is widely studied by means of experiments and numerical simulations, here the convective flow has been studied quantitatively. During the melting phase the viscous and thermal boundary layers at the walls has been reported at different heights from the bottom of the device. Results show in detail the phenomenology of the melting process within a shelland-tube LHTES supporting the development of design solutions that could enhance the heat transfer of such device.

show abstract

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…The overall behavior of the device is well reproduced. Other details of the numerical model with a validation study and a grid sensitive analysis on the same geometry can be found in Fornarelli et al [44,55].…”

Section: Numerical Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Convective Effects in a Latent Heat Thermal Energy Storage

Fornarelli

Camporeale

Fortunato

2019

Heat Transfer Engineering

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Moreover, the solid-liquid phase change promotes the triggering of convective heat transfer improving the performance of the storage [5]. The convective motion is then influenced not only by the physical characteristics of the PCM but also by the geometrical and operating parameters [6,7]. Hence, the characteristic times of charging and discharging are sensibly different and can change according to the geometrical configuration of the device [8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multi-objective sensitivity analysis of shell-and-tube LHTES performance

Fornarelli

D’Ambrosio

2021

E3S Web Conf.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In the present paper a sensitivity analysis has been carried out concerning the charging/discharging time and the stored energy performances of a shell-and-tube LHTES with respect to the number of tubes and the tube internal radius. The aim of this analysis is to investigate how the design variables affect the LHTES performance. this could lead to determine the thermal storage optimal design. Thus, the sensitivity analysis has a key role in the selection of several acceptable solutions. The considered LHTES exhibits a cylindrical shell geometry characterized by constant height and diameter. This aspect has allowed to employ simplified theoretical models able to predict the charging/discharging time and the stored energy performance. These models consider a constant heat exchange wall temperature whereas the heat exchange area and the whole PCM volume vary according to the design variables. This analysis represents the first step to solve the multi-objective optimization of the thermal storage design problem and then to determine the best solutions in both design variables and thermal storage performance domains.

show abstract

“…Lo Cascio et al [7] proposed a configuration of the natural gas pressure reduction stations coupled with Concentrated Solar Plant (CSP) equipped with sun-tracking parabolic trough solar collectors and thermal energy storage [8,9] in order to allow the preheating of the natural gas. Lo Cascio et al [10] proposed a set of key performance indicators for evaluating the effectiveness of the replacement in terms of energy recovery.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fast Design Procedure for Turboexpanders in Pressure Energy Recovery Applications

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Sustainable development can no longer neglect the growth of those technologies that look at the recovery of any energy waste in industrial processes. For example, in almost every industrial plant it happens that pressure energy is wasted in throttling devices for pressure and flow control needs. Clearly, the recovery of this wasted energy can be considered as an opportunity to reach not only a higher plant energy efficiency, but also the reduction of the plant Operating Expenditures (OpEx). In recent years, it is getting common to replace throttling valves with turbine-based systems (tuboexpander) thus getting both the pressure control and the energy recovery, for instance, producing electricity. However, the wide range of possible operating conditions, technical requirements and design constrains determine highly customized constructions of these turboexpanders. Furthermore, manufacturers are interested in tools enabling them to rapidly get the design of their products. For these reasons, in this work we propose an optimization design procedure, which is able to rapidly come to the design of the turboexpander taking into account all the fluid dynamic and technical requirements, considering the already obtained achievements of the scientific community in terms of theory, experiments and numeric. In order to validate the proposed methodology, the case of a single stage axial impulse turbine is considered. However, the methodology extension to other turbomachines is straightforward. Specifically, the design requirements were expressed in terms of maximum allowable expansion ratio and flow coefficient, while achieving at least a minimum assigned value of the turbine loading factor. Actually, it is an iterative procedure, carried out up to convergence, made of the following steps: (i) the different loss coefficients in the turbine are set-up in order to estimate its main geometric parameters by means of a one dimensional (1D) study; (ii) the 2D blade profiles are designed by means of an optimization algorithm based on a “viscous/inviscid interaction” technique; (iii) 3D Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) simulations are then carried out and the loss coefficients are computed and updated. Regarding the CFD simulations, a preliminary model assessment has been performed against a reference case, chosen in the literature. The above-mentioned procedure is implemented in such a way to speed up the convergence, coupling analytical integral models of the 1D/2D approach with accurate local solutions of the finite-volume 3D approach. The method is shown to be able to achieve consistent results, allowing the determination of a turbine design respectful of the requirements more than doubling the minimum required loading factor.

show abstract

Numerical simulation of a complete charging-discharging phase of a shell and tube thermal energy storage with phase change material

Cited by 30 publications

References 15 publications

Convective Effects in a Latent Heat Thermal Energy Storage

Convective Effects in a Latent Heat Thermal Energy Storage

Multi-objective sensitivity analysis of shell-and-tube LHTES performance

Fast Design Procedure for Turboexpanders in Pressure Energy Recovery Applications

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About