Role of thermal energy storage for enhancing thermal performance of evacuated tube with compound parabolic concentrator collector

Christopher, S.; Kumaresan, V.; Raghavan, K.

doi:10.1002/er.6318

Cited by 11 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…However, using phase change materials (PCMs) in LHTES systems is still a challenge for TES systems 5,6 . In the case of PCMs, low conductivity of material can lead to non‐uniform charging and discharging, resulting in incomplete phase changes and diminished performance 7,8 . Numerous methods, such as dispersion of micro or nano particles into PCMs, 9 adding fins, 10 and placement of heat pipes, 11 drops in pressure, particle settlement, and increase in size are major concerns in employing in the real time and dynamics systems.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental investigation in the selection of phase change materials based on thermal stratification effect in thermal energy storage system

Christopher

Vikram

Bharathi

2023

Env Prog and Sustain Energy

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This study aims to evaluate the effects of thermal stratification on thermal energy storage (TES) systems during the charging process and choose suitable phase change materials (PCMs) for various layers. The research revealed that fiberglass insulation of 60 mm thick significantly decreased natural convection losses and increased the TES system's potential for energy recovery. For constant heat load, the charging time increased with increasing HTF inlet temperature, but remained constant for the first TES layer at a specified flow rate, resulting in increased storage capacity with minimal heat loss to the surroundings. The solar collector efficiency was shown to be dependent on solar radiation and collector efficiency, with peak efficiency seen at specified periods. The lowest melting point of PCMs at each layer 68°C, 62.7°C, 57°C, and 50°C was chosen based on temperature graphs. For comparing stratification behavior, the “MIX” number versus non‐dimensional charging time plot was effective. Additional experiments are needed to assess the selected PCMs' charging and discharging properties.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental investigation in the selection of phase change materials based on thermal stratification effect in thermal energy storage system

Christopher

Vikram

Bharathi

2023

Env Prog and Sustain Energy

Self Cite

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“…In another research work carried out by Suresh and Saini, 14 they compared the performance of a combined TES system with a traditional sensible storage system that contains only concrete spheres as a packing element, and they concluded that better performance with their new system is obtained. On the other hand, Christopher et al 15 investigated the performance of TES combined with evacuated tube collectors. They concluded that the stored energy is improved by 41% when the cascade configuration of PCM is selected in TES.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Performance assessment of a phase change charging mode in a vertical thermal energy storage system

Asker

Akal

Ezan

2022

Intl J of Energy Research

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Summary In this work, the performance of a charging mode of a thermal energy storage system is investigated numerically, and results are assessed considering the first law and second law perspectives. The storage unit comprises parallel plates positioned vertically, and the heat transfer fluid flows within the spacing between the plates. The melting process of phase change material inside a rectangular enclosure is simulated considering the natural convection using an in‐house model codded in C++. The proposed model is validated with the numerical and experimental research from the literature. A parametric analysis is carried out to explore the influence of heat transfer inlet temperature and aspect ratio on the unit's first law and second law performance indicators. Analyses are also conducted by disregarding the natural convection to assess the convective mode of heat transfer on the time‐wise variation of the storage effectiveness and stored exergy. The results revealed that for the highest inlet temperature of the heat transfer fluid, the stored energy value increases from 133.85 to 250 kJ then drops to 240 kJ by varying the aspect ratio from 0.25 to 0.50 and from 0.50 to 1.00, respectively, for the natural convection dominated melting. On the other hand, regarding effectiveness, both with and without natural convection modes show the same aspect ratio variations trend. The effectiveness reduces from 0.9 to 0.40 by increasing the aspect ratio from 0.25 to 1.00 for the natural convection‐dominated melting mode. The effectiveness drops from 0.62 to 0.16 for the same variation in the aspect ratio for the conduction‐dominated melting mode. Besides, it is found that the highest stored exergy is observed in Case 9 w/NC situation with a stored exergy value of 13.3 kJ. The exergy efficiency changes approximately between 65% and 81% for all cases.

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“…It is a more energy‐efficient method than conventional accumulation 8 . The utilization of the PCM has been found to be useful for different applications including thermal management in building, 9‐11 performance enhancement in solar collectors, 12,13 and thermal energy storage 14,15 . There is an increasing research interest in using nanoparticles and fins for enhancing the thermal performance of the heat storage units 16‐19 …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thermal performance of an accumulator unit using phase change material with a fixed volume of fins

2021

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Summary Melting rate enhancement inside an accumulator unit for a phase change material (PCM) has been numerically investigated in a shell‐and‐tube (S‐T) arrangement that incorporates the circular type of fins, considering a fixed total volume of fins. The number of fins was chosen as the design parameter. The heat transfer fluid (HTF) was chosen as water that flows through the selected accumulator unit during the process of melting. The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) technique has been utilized for the simulation of the accumulator using ANSYS FLUENT software by considering a two‐dimensional axisymmetric cylindrical accumulator in a vertical direction. During the melting process, two heat transfer mechanisms were considered, namely, conduction and convection. The HTF flow was 5 L/min with a flow temperature of 358 K for charging. The predicted complete melting time of the PCM decreased by 53.125%, 65.625%, 71.875%, and 71.875% for fins numbering 6, 18, 30, and 36, respectively, compared with the S‐T without fins where it took approximately 480 minutes to melt completely. The optimal fin parameters are recommended in this study as follows: number of fins N = 30, thickness t/d = 0.01858, interval d/L = 0.03227, and aspect ratio t/h = 0.015. These recommended values maximize the thermal performance of the selected accumulator unit. The effects of changing the flow rate of the heat transfer fluid and its inlet temperature have been found to be significant on the PCM melting rate. The total melting time of the PCM is found to be reduced by about 57% when the inlet flow temperature is increased from 343 to 358 K. Moreover, the total melting time reduces by about 70.5% with an increase in the heat transfer fluid mass flow rate from 0.15 to 5 L/min. Furthermore, increasing the HTF flow rate from 0.15 to 5 L/min leads to a reduction of about 61.1% in the predicted total time that is required for solidification. The temperature differences for low flow rates are greater than those for high flow rates. The novelty of this study is in investigating the performance at a fixed total volume of fins.

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Role of thermal energy storage for enhancing thermal performance of evacuated tube with compound parabolic concentrator collector

Cited by 11 publications

References 30 publications

Experimental investigation in the selection of phase change materials based on thermal stratification effect in thermal energy storage system

Experimental investigation in the selection of phase change materials based on thermal stratification effect in thermal energy storage system

Performance assessment of a phase change charging mode in a vertical thermal energy storage system

Thermal performance of an accumulator unit using phase change material with a fixed volume of fins

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