Simulation of Flow and Heat Exchange in a Heat Accumulator Tank

Abstract

The article deals with the research of thermal energy storage tanks. It is proposed to use a «thermal core» to minimize the effects of thermal stratification and high thermal inertia. The thermal core consists of a binary tube placed along the central axis of the tank, filled with a paraffin mixture with a melting point of 45 to 65oC and a density of 0,880 to 0,915g/cm3 at 15oC. In the study the Fluent software package was used to model the temperature distribution in the tank under free convection conditions, the data was then converted to the Transient Thermal module of the ANSYS software package for further calculations of the unsteady temperature distribution in the thermal core. The study showed that a 1400-liter thermal energy storage device, heated for 1 hour by a heat-transfer fluid at 115oC, cools down to 50oC in 4 hours. The research also revealed the need to improve the tank design based on the analysis of the hydrodynamic structure of the flow in the tank, as evidenced by the trajectory distribution of free convective flows. The authors concluded that the use of a heat core, regardless of the type of paraffin used to form it, helps to reduce temperature stratification by height in the tank and that the type of paraffin used has no significant effect on the overall cooling of the tank. However, using ceresin as a core filler results in a slightly higher average tank temperature. Based on the results of the study, the time of complete cooling of the tank was determined by the non-uniform temperature field of all elements of the tank.