A Study on the Thermal Energy Storage System Using Multiple PCMs
Abstract
Application of Phase Change Materials (PCMs) for energy storage has been found to exhibit high potential due to the high energy storing capacity. This study investigated the performance of multiple PCMs in a number of energy storage systems. The effects of conduction and natural convection on these systems were also studied. Numerical simulations based on the conservation equations were conducted on the defined geometries. It was found that natural convection has significant positive effects on the heat transfer in these systems. It was also found that application of multiple PCMs generally enhances performance. However, different effects were observed on the heat transfer mechanisms. The parallel configuration enhances conduction but suppresses convection while the series configuration does the opposite. It was also found that the vertical orientation enhances convection more than the horizontal orientation for the multiple PCMs configurations. Energy storage with the series configuration in vertical orientation was found to be superior with 47% and 60% reduction in complete melting time respectively, compared to the single configuration in vertical orientation and to the single and series configurations (horizontal and vertical) in the conduction only case.
Keywords
Phase change materials, Renewable energy, Heat transfer