Thermo-Economic Assessments on a Heat Storage Tank Filled with Graded Metal Foam

Gang Liu, Yuanji Li, Pan Wei, Tian Xiao, Xiangzhao Meng () and Xiaohu Yang ()
Additional contact information
Gang Liu: Institute of the Building Environment & Sustainability Technology, School of Human Settlements and Civil Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China
Yuanji Li: Institute of the Building Environment & Sustainability Technology, School of Human Settlements and Civil Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China
Pan Wei: China Northwest Architecture Design and Research Institute, Co., Ltd., Xi’an 710077, China
Tian Xiao: State Key Laboratory for Strength and Vibration of Mechanical Structures, School of Aerospace, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China
Xiangzhao Meng: Institute of the Building Environment & Sustainability Technology, School of Human Settlements and Civil Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China
Xiaohu Yang: Institute of the Building Environment & Sustainability Technology, School of Human Settlements and Civil Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 19, 1-16

Abstract: To save and better deploy waste heat, the use of a mobilized heat storage system (MHSS) with phase change enhancement means is developed. In this paper, three kinds of gradient structures (positive gradient, negative gradient, and non-gradient) are designed in the MHSS system. The uniform porosity is 94% in the non-gradient structure, and the gradient porosities are 86%, 93%, and 98% in the gradient structure, respectively. Numerical models are developed to explore the contribution of the graded metal foam structure to the heat storage and release process. An economic analysis and comparison of MHSS systems with different heat transfer models are carried out. The results show that the positive gradient case can promote the thermal cycle of the melting and solidification process, while the negative gradient case inhibits the thermal cycle. The positive gradient case can reduce the melting time by 9.7% and the solidification time by 4.4%, while the negative gradient can prolong the melting time by 31.4% and the solidification time by 35.9%. Although graded metal foam increases the initial investment by 76.09%, the 1 KW·h heat cost of graded metal foam is reduced by 10.63% compared to pure phase change material (PCM). It is cost-effective in the long run of thermal cycles.

Keywords: mobile heat storage system; latent heat energy storage systems; gradient structure; metal foam; thermo-economic assessment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/19/7213/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/19/7213/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:15:y:2022:i:19:p:7213-:d:930638

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().