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Latent Heat Energy Storage System with Continuously Varying Melting Temperature

Taha K. Aldoss and Muhammad Mustafizur Rahman
Wichita State University, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Wichita, Kansas 67260, USA

Abstract— Latent thermal storage systems are more efficient and more compact than the sensible type. The heat transfer fluid (HTF) temperature profile along the bed exists with higher temperature at the entrance and lower temperature at the exit section in charging process and the opposite in the discharging process. Recognizing the fact that the rate of heat transfer between HTF and the phase change material (PCM) depends on the temperature difference between the two, researchers recently proposed using multiple PCM’s instead of single PCM in the bed to match the variation in the HTF temperature profile, thus maximizing the heat transfer rate. This new design is called cascaded PCM distribution. The question then rose how many stages the cascading should be. This work comes to answer this question by considering the limiting case of cascading that is the continuous linear cascading. Comparing the performance of the three cascaded stages with the linear continuous case, it is found that the three stages do approach the linear reference case with no need for more stages.

Index Terms— cascaded thermal storage; multiple PCM’s; cylindrical pellets; cross flow heat exchanger

Cite: Taha K. Aldoss and Muhammad Mustafizur Rahman, "Latent Heat Energy Storage System with Continuously Varying Melting Temperature," International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Research, Vol. 7, No. 2, pp. 113-119, March 2018. DOI: 10.18178/ijmerr.7.2.113-119