Determination of Thermocline Heat Transfer Coefficient by Using CFD Simulation

Arkadiusz Szczęśniak, Jarosław Milewski (), Olaf Dybiński, Kamil Futyma, Jakub Skibiński, Aliaksandr Martsinchyk and Łukasz Szabłowski
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Arkadiusz Szczęśniak: Faculty of Power and Aeronautical Engineering, Institute of Heat Engineering, Warsaw University of Technology, 21/25 Nowowiejska Street, 00-665 Warsaw, Poland
Jarosław Milewski: Faculty of Power and Aeronautical Engineering, Institute of Heat Engineering, Warsaw University of Technology, 21/25 Nowowiejska Street, 00-665 Warsaw, Poland
Olaf Dybiński: Faculty of Power and Aeronautical Engineering, Institute of Heat Engineering, Warsaw University of Technology, 21/25 Nowowiejska Street, 00-665 Warsaw, Poland
Kamil Futyma: Faculty of Power and Aeronautical Engineering, Institute of Heat Engineering, Warsaw University of Technology, 21/25 Nowowiejska Street, 00-665 Warsaw, Poland
Jakub Skibiński: Faculty of Power and Aeronautical Engineering, Institute of Heat Engineering, Warsaw University of Technology, 21/25 Nowowiejska Street, 00-665 Warsaw, Poland
Aliaksandr Martsinchyk: Faculty of Power and Aeronautical Engineering, Institute of Heat Engineering, Warsaw University of Technology, 21/25 Nowowiejska Street, 00-665 Warsaw, Poland
Łukasz Szabłowski: Faculty of Power and Aeronautical Engineering, Institute of Heat Engineering, Warsaw University of Technology, 21/25 Nowowiejska Street, 00-665 Warsaw, Poland

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 7, 1-14

Abstract: This article deals with a thermal energy storage system in the form of a water tank with a thermocline. The well-known thermocline phenomenon is modeled using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). However, the reservoir model proposed in this article is zero-dimensional. This is due to the fact that the aim of this article is to build a mathematical model that will be more useful in mathematical models of complex energy systems in which a hot water tank is one of many elements of the system. In such a zero-dimensional mathematical model, the hot water tank will be modeled using equations describing heat transfer, and the thermocline itself will be treated as a heat transfer surface with known dimensions and heat transfer coefficient. A novelty of this paper is that it addresses heat loss across the thermocline as defined in this manner. A CFD model of a thermal storage tank is created, validated with available experimental data, and used to obtain the heat transfer coefficient U. The resulting value is then analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively and the changes in the thickness of the thermocline are accounted for in the equation. The results from this groundbreaking work can be used to analyze heat storage in the form of thermocline water tanks at the level of system modeling, e.g., for the purpose of configuring the structure of other devices and control systems.

Keywords: energy thermal storage; heat storage; thermocline; computational fluid mechanics; numerical simulation (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 (2)

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