Novel solid–solid phase-change cascade systems for high-temperature thermal energy storage

An experimental and numerical study on phase change material melting rate enhancement for a horizontal semi-circular shell and tube thermal energy storage system

Experimental and numerical characterization of natural convection in a vertical shell-and-tube latent thermal energy storage system

Due to the intermittent nature of solar energy availability, storing sun’s energy in the form of latent thermal energy of a phase change material (PCM) is an effective technique that is widely used in energy storage and load management applications. In a Latent Thermal Energy Storage System (LTES), a heat transfer fluid (HTF) exchanges energy with a PCM. The advantages of an LTES include its isothermal operation and high energy storage density. However, the low thermal conductivity of PCM poses a significant disadvantage due to reduction in the rate at which the PCM can be melted (charging) or solidified (discharging). This paper explores an approach to reducing the thermal resistance of PCM in a LTES through embedded heat pipes. A heat pipe is a passive heat transfer device that efficiently transfers large amount of energy between the PCM and HTF thus indirectly amplifying the effective thermal conductivity of PCM. A transient computational analysis of a shell and tube LTES embedded with heat pipes is performed for charging to determine the position of melt front and energy stored as a function of time. The influence of the number and orientation of heat pipes and design configuration of the system is analyzed to identify configurations that lead to improved effectiveness.

Latent heat storage systems consisting of phase change materials (PCMs) offer the advantage of a large thermal energy storage density as compared to sensible heat storage systems. Most recent work has focussed on organic and inorganic PCMs which have problems of subcooling and phase segregation. Metallic PCMs are a recent innovation for medium to high temperature applications due to their high thermal conductivities, high volumetric storage capacities and their low degrees of sub-cooling during the release of latent heat. For medium temperature applications like cooking of food, very limited work has been done on metallic PCMs for energy storage. Solder based PCMs have rarely been investigated for medium temperature applications thus it is necessary to carry out an experimental study on the use of a solder as PCM candidate. No work has ever been reported using the eutectic solder (Sn63/Pb37) as a PCM. Its use is justified since it is low cost and locally manufactured solder worldwide. Another recent innovation is cascaded thermal energy storage (TES), whereby two PCMs with different melting temperatures are used in a single storage tank to improve the efficiency of energy storage. No work has also appeared in recent literature involving metallic solders in cascaded systems. In a bid to investigate the suitability of the eutectic solder as a PCM for medium temperature applications, two eutectic solder (Sn63/Pb37) based systems are experimentally evaluated during discharging cycles. The first system is a single PCM system composed of a packed bed of spherically encapsulated eutectic solder capsules. The other system is a two PCM cascaded system comprising of eutectic solder spherical capsules at the top and erythritol spherical capsules at the bottom in a storage ratio of 50 %: 50 %. Discharging experiments are carried with three different discharging flow-rates to investigate the effect of the flow-rate on the thermal performance. The three discharging flow-rates used are 4 ml/s, 6 ml/s and 8 ml/s. For both storage systems, an increase in the discharging flow-rate increases the peak discharging energy and exergy rates. For both storage systems, an increase in the discharging flow-rate increases the peak discharging energy and exergy rates. The single PCM system shows higher energy and exergy rates for most of the discharging duration compared to the cascaded system. An increase in the flow-rate increases the peak energy and exergy discharging rates for the single PCM and the cascaded PCM storage systems. The single PCM system out-performed the cascaded system during the discharging tests possibly due to the lower melting temperature and lower thermal conductivity of the bottom PCM (erythritol) in the cascaded system. However, for the higher flow-rates (6 ml/s, 8 ml/s), the cascaded system shows a slightly better or comparable performance at the start and at end of discharging.

Numerical study and multilayer perceptron-based prediction of melting process in the latent heat thermal energy storage system with a finned elliptical inner cylinder

Improved Performance of Composite Phase Change Material for Thermal Energy Storage

Galactitol as phase change material for latent heat storage of solar cookers: Investigating thermal behavior in bulk cycling

A numerical study on the effect of the number and arrangement of tubes on the melting performance of phase change material in a multi-tube latent thermal energy storage system

Performance evaluation of cascaded storage system with multiple phase change materials

Improving the energy efficiency of passive PCM system using controlled natural ventilation

Numerical and experimental study of heat transfer characteristics of a shell-tube latent heat storage system: Part I – Charging process

Numerical study of a dual-PCM thermal energy storage unit with an optimized low-volume fin structure

Experimental and numerical investigation of a tube-in-tank latent thermal energy storage unit using composite PCM

Review of passive PCM latent heat thermal energy storage systems towards buildings’ energy efficiency

Molten salt is regarded as one of most promising candidates for solar energy storage due to possessing stable properties and large energy storage densities. However, the intrinsically low thermal conductivity of molten salt has become a bottleneck for rapid heat storage and transport. The addition of nanoparticles is generally considered to be a most effective way to improve the thermal conductivity of molten salt phase change materials (PCMs), while the phase change enthalpies of the nanocomposite phase change materials usually show two opposite trends of enhancement or decrement. Furthermore, the reason for the abnormal change of phase change enthalpy has not been clear in the literature so far, so the mechanism of change needs to be further explored. In this work, graphene nanosheets (GNS)@NaNO<sub>3</sub> (sodium nitrate) nanocomposite phase change materials are prepared by the hydration ultrasonic method. The materials are characterized by scanning electron microscope, and the phase change characteristics are measured using differential scanning calorimeter. Molecular dynamics simulation is carried out to explain the mechanism for the formation of the NaNO<sub>3</sub> dense layer and the non-collateral decrease of the enthalpy from the microscopic level. With the increase of GNS mass fraction, the melting point of the GNS@NaNO<sub>3</sub> composite phase change material decreases slightly while the phase change enthalpy decreases significantly with a non-colligative trend. A 13.81% decrease of the theoretical phase change enthalpy is observed with a GNS doping ratio of 1.5%. The NaNO<sub>3</sub> clusters observed on the surface of GNS are considered to have not melted, thereby resulting in a reduction in the phase change enthalpy. The mechanism is further investigated by molecular dynamics simulation, showing that the strong van der Waals attraction between GNS and NaNO<sub>3</sub> leads the 2–4 Å-thick NaNO<sub>3</sub> dense layer to form in the vicinity of GNS. With the increase of GNS mass fraction, the centroid equivalent distance between the dense layer and GNS gradually increases, which leads their mutual attraction to first increase and then weaken. When GNS mass fraction is 1.5%, the centroid equivalent distance reaches the position closest to the potential well, leading to a strongest mutual attraction. In other words, the phase change enthalpy decreases most obviously at this mass fraction. Thus, some conclusions can be drawn as follows. The type of interaction between molten salt and nano-enhancers and the position of the potential well are the fundamental reasons for the thickness of molten salt dense layer and the reduction of phase change enthalpy. The calculation of the interaction energy can be used to guide the selection of the mass fraction of the nano-enhancers, so as to avoid the loss of core material cluster and phase change enthalpy caused by the introduction of the nano-enhancers to a greatest extent. The preparation cost of the composite phase change material can also be reduced to a certain extent.