An Experimental Investigation on the Performance of a Water Storage Tank with Sodium Acetate Trihydrate

Jie Huang, Fei Xu, Zilong Wang () and Hua Zhang
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Jie Huang: Institute of Refrigeration and cryogenic Engineering, School of Energy and Power Engineering, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai 200093, China
Fei Xu: Technical Center for Mechanical and Electrical Product Inspection and Testing of Shanghai Customs District, Shanghai 200135, China
Zilong Wang: Institute of Refrigeration and cryogenic Engineering, School of Energy and Power Engineering, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai 200093, China
Hua Zhang: Institute of Refrigeration and cryogenic Engineering, School of Energy and Power Engineering, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai 200093, China

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 2, 1-14

Abstract: Phase change material (PCM) water tanks have a major influence on the efficiency improvement of solar energy systems. This article discusses the effects of PCM under various inlets in a tank based on related research. So as to research the performance of the water storage tank, this paper built a set of water tank experimental systems using sodium acetate trihydrate. The thermal characteristics of two different water tanks were analyzed at 2, 6 and 10 L/min when the inlet temperature was 20 °C and the initial high temperature was 80 °C. The test results indicate that adding PCMs helps to provide an extra 1.4% of stored heat, prolong the hot water outlet time, and has a better thermal stratification, compared with ordinary water tanks. However, PCMs do not give off heat quickly at high flow rates. Besides the exergy efficiency (EE) gradually decreasing, the MIX number first decreases and then increases; the fill efficiency (FE) has the opposite trend with the flow increasing. FE has a max of 0.905 at 6 L/min.

Keywords: water storage tank; PCM; thermal stratification (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: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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