Open Access
NUMERICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF A PACKED-BED LATENT HEAT THERMAL ENERGY STORAGE UNIT UTILIZING VARIOUS PARAFFIN PHASE CHANGE MATERIALS
4
Thermal Energy and Building Performance Group, University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain
Abstract
The growing imperative for energy efficiency and sustainable resource management necessitates advanced thermal energy storage (TES) solutions to bridge the temporal mismatch between energy supply and demand. Latent Heat Thermal Energy Storage (LHTES) systems, leveraging the high energy density associated with the phase change of materials, offer a particularly promising avenue. This article presents a comprehensive study on a packed-bed LHTES unit, combining experimental measurements and numerical simulations to evaluate its performance when utilizing different paraffin-based Phase Change Materials (PCMs). The investigation details the design and construction of the experimental setup, the meticulous measurement techniques employed (with uncertainty analysis), and the development and validation of a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model. The study systematically examines the charging and discharging characteristics, heat transfer rates, and thermal efficiency for various paraffins under different operating conditions. Findings reveal significant differences in performance attributed to the thermophysical properties of the chosen PCMs. The validated numerical model further enables detailed parametric studies, providing critical insights into the underlying heat transfer mechanisms and offering practical guidance for optimizing packed-bed LHTES designs for enhanced energy storage and release, thereby contributing to the broader application of sustainable energy technologies.
Keywords
Packed-bed thermal energy storage,
latent heat storage,
phase change materials (PCMs)
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