Latent thermal energy storage
Basics of latent thermal energy storage
During the melting process, a significant amount of heat is stored as latent heat (charging
process). In contrast, during the release of the stored heat, the molten material begins a
liquid-to-solid phase change (solidification) until it solidifies completely (discharge process)
Some minor temperature change?
The heating/cooling medium going through the storage material must be at a different
temperature to be able to accomplish the heat exchange process
The design parameters for an LTES system are latent heat of fusion and coefficient of
thermal expansion along with other thermophysical parameters.
LTES is a quasi isothermal process that is capable of storing much higher energy
(5-14 times) compared to STES in the same volume and temperature range
Classification of phase change molecules consisting of
hydrocarbon chains with
materials different lengths organic
Solid-solid PCMs have low substances
volumetric expansions, which with the
leads to more design flexibility potential to
and lower cost than solid-liquid be used as
PCMs, but they offer low PCM: sugar
thermal conductivity alcohols,
glycols,
esters, and
Solid-gas and liquid-gas PCMs fatty acids
have high latent heat, but due to
the need for a storage tank with a
large volume and because of the
complex tank design, they have
limited use and are not common in
application
Organic PCMs are widely used in real applications due to outstanding
features such as slight supercooling, high latent heat of fusion, good cycling
stability, chemical stability, availability in a wide range of temperatures, and
non-corrosiveness. However, organic PCMs have disadvantages such as low
thermal conductivity and flammability. In addition, nonparaffin PCMs are
more expensive, more flammable, and less corrosive
Inorganic PCMs, have almost higher thermal so they have the potential to be used for
conductivity and more heat storage capacity medium to high temperature applications
Eutectic PCMs are composed of the combination of two or more organic or inorganic PCMs,
which provide a favorable melting point by changing the composition ratio
in addition to the energy storage density, the
selection of a suitable PCM depends on the
melting temperature, thermophysical
characteristics, corrosion of the container, and
the cost.
No PCM that meets all the requirements can be
found in reality. In general, most PCMs have
low thermal conductivity and have problems
with system leakage and supercooling
Latent thermal energy storage heat exchangers
After selecting the appropriate PCM, the geometry of the PCM enclosure, casing, or
encapsulation is another important factor for an LTES system, having a direct effect
on the conductivity and phase change rate
Shell and tube heat exchangers often shorten the
melting and freezing time of the storage material
shell and tube heat exchangers, triplex tube heat by a larger number of HTF tubes.
exchangers, and rectangular heat exchangers
In the shell and tube model, normally the PCM
Recently, this heat
should rest within the shell around the pipes,
exchanger model h
which are filled with the heat transfer fluid
received much
(HTF). However, placing PCM through the
attention due to
tubes increases the heat transfer surface and thus
providing
improves the charge/discharge rate.
simultaneous
charging/dischargin
The introduced configurations can be
horizontal or vertical, with different effects on
the melting and freezing times. In the
horizontal arrangement, buoyancy effects make
the PCM recirculate, thus enhancing the
convective heat transfer rate in comparison
with the vertical arrangement. It is suggested to
use the horizontal configuration for a faster
charging process and the vertical configuration
for an enhanced discharging process.
Refer to HT in Rectabgular cavities in Incropra
book.
Nano enhanced PCM ?
shell to tube diameter ratio (R) is an important
parameter in PCM containers. This parameter
affects the time of complete melting and
freezing, and the amount of stored energy. A
higher R value would mean a larger quantity of
the PCM and thereby increased storage
capacity, although this would also pick up the
time of melting and freezing. Therefore, the
optimal value of R is necessary to achieve the
highest energy storage density in the shortest
melting time
By keeping the pipe diameter constant and
reducing the shell diameter, the amount of
PCM consumed is reduced and the melting
time becomes faster, though this is not
preferred because of the reduced storage
capacity. Increasing the shell diameter would
naturally mean a larger amount of PCM and
better controlled HTF output temperature. The
optimal value of R=4 was reported
Other types
Heat pipe is another type of heat exchanger that has the ability to transfer the latent heat of the
working fluid by charging in the evaporator and discharging in the condenser. Gravity assisted
and wicked heat pipes are the two common types used for heat transfer. The shell and tube
model is a suitable configuration for heat pipe-assisted LTES, with the HTF and PCM through
the tube and shell, respectively. Charging rate enhancement of 30% and charging time
reduction by up to 55% were reported with the increase in volume flow rate and HTF
temperature in a copper heat pipe (Tiari et al., 2017).
The PCM container, which must be adequately insulated, is generally at high risk of corrosion
due to operation under variable temperature conditions. Common materials for making heat
exchanger are metals (aluminum and copper) and metal alloys (stainless steel and carbon
steel) as well as polymers. Experiments show that stainless steel is the best and most available
material for this purpose, while polymers are also a good option due to not being reactive with
the materials inside the housing and showing favorable resistance (Dinker et al., 2017).
Performance enhancement methods for latent thermal
energy storage systems
Uniform phase change process and larger surface area. For the former (higher thermal
conductivity) introducing porous structures such as metal foams (MF) in PCMs to form PCM
, composites and mixing PCM with solid nanoparticles with higher thermal conductivities are
effective solutions
Using fins inside the system and encapsulating
the PCM is an approach to tackle the larger
surface area requirement.
Uniformizing the PCM phase-change process,
that is, the same temperature through the PCM
and phase-changing at the same time could be
addressed by cascaded PCM systems (meaning
using a number of different PCMs with phase-
change temperatures together
Enhancing phase change material thermal conductivity
two of the most common methods of thermal conductivity
Metal foams
MFs are lightweight porous metals with a high
void fraction inside the structure. These porous
metal structures with relatively high thermal
conductivity and very high specific surface area
are considered a good option to overcome the
heat transfer limitations of PCMs. PCM-MF
composites have excellent conductive heat
transfer, which leads to a significant reduction
in phase change time.
As seen, first, the MF is immersed into the
chamber containing the liquid PCM, which is
placed in a warm pool to be heated. The entire
chamber is then vacuumed and the PCM is
cooled until it freezes. After the complete
freezing of the composite, the container is placed
again in the warm pool so that the parts near the
wall are slightly liquefied and the composite
mold can be easily separated from the container.
Finally, excess PCM is trimmed around the MF
structure.
The thermal conductivity of the constructed composites depends on the type of the selected
materials and the porosity foam (the void volume divided by the total volume)
Porosity and the pore scale are two important characteristics of MF structure. A higher porosity
means a lower thermal conductivity of the composite and hence a lower heat transfer rate which
may lead an undesirably longer phase change process. On the other hand, higher porosity
translates to having a greater amount of PCM and a higher energy storage density. Meanwhile,
more pore-scale voids make the natural convection more possible and hence increase the rate of
heat transfer.
Enhancing phase change material thermal
conductivity
Nanoparticles
implementing nanomaterials
(particles/fibers/tubes/sheets) in PCMs, with What are the characteristics??
their special properties and high surface-to-
volume factor. For example, metallic and Sedimentation in high volume of NP?
metallic oxide nanoparticles are highly thermal homogeneity of the PCM over time and
conductive (30006600 W/m.K) and are widely reducing the thermal conductivity
used to improve PCMs’ thermal characteristics
Surface area expansion
Finned tube:
summarizes the specifications of these materials
in terms of the mentioned factors
Obviously, low cost and high thermal conductivity
and density are desired here. Thus, among these
materials, aluminum could be an optimal choice.
Encapsulated phase change material
This measure could resolve some limitations of controlling the volume change and protection
PCMs, like low thermal conductivity and against mixing with the HTF and reacting with
instability (both chemical and mechanical) as the surrounding environment.
well as supercooling, which may result in
reduced heat transfer rate and thermal corrosion reduction, and adaptability of PCMs
efficiency of the LTES system to building heating/cooling applications or even
for more sensitive and special applications such
as blood transportation and in the food industry
Cascade phase change materials for enhanced process uniformity
Important!
how the PCMs with different melting temperatures in a cascade unit are used in LTES
systems. It is a matter of whether this will be a heat or cold storage unit. For a heat storage
unit, PCMs with lower temperatures are positioned first and those with higher melting
temperatures come afterwards. The order is reversed for a cold storage unit.
afterward
Important!
how the PCMs with different melting temperatures in a cascade unit are used in LTES
systems. It is a matter of whether this will be a heat or cold storage unit. For a heat storage
unit, PCMs with lower temperatures are positioned first and those with higher melting
temperatures come afterwards. The order is reversed for a cold storage unit.
afterward
Applications of latent thermal energy storage systems
Building applications
PCMs are used in both active and passive ways
In the passive technique, PCM stores or releases heat depending on the temperature of the part
of the building that needs to be increased or decreased. In this case, PCM is added to building
materials or building components to increase the thermal storage capacity of the building
structure. In the active application, the heat exchange from/to PCMs is done by external forces
like fans or pumps
Cold storage
Cold storage is used in numerous applications, including HVACs (especially in
large buildings), electronic device cooling, food industries (especially dairy),
and electricity demand peak-shaving. During the last two decades, PCM-based
cold storage has received much attention, but its use in subzero applications
has not yet been widely investigated, probably due to the high investment cost
required for the materials suitable for such low temperatures. Therefore in the
last decade, a lot of research has been done in the field of choosing suitable
PCM for cold storage applications. To date, most studies in this field have
focused on the small scales, and large-scale systems for industrial and
commercial applications have been less developed.
Eutectic watersalt solutions and paraffins are
two groups of PCMs that are often suggested
for subzero temperature applications. Paraffins
can be used in the
temperature range up to 53.5C and eutectic
watersalt solutions up to 62C
Energy model
The amount of heat stored in an LTES unit is composed of three parts of solid sensible heat,
latent heat, and liquid sensible heat, according to the following equation:
The storage capacity of PCM heated from temperature T1 to T2, at phase change temperature
of T, includes three parts: (1) sensible heat change in the solid phase from T1 to T; (2) latent
heat at temperature T; and (3) sensible heat in the liquid state from T to T2 which is written
according to the following relation:
Morrison and Abdel-Khalik (1978). proposed a model for the energy exchange of a
PCM in an LTES system based on three assumptions: (1) negligible axial conduction in
the fluid flow; (2) negligible transverse temperature gradient because of a low Biot
number; and (3) negligible heat losses in the bed. The energy balance of PCM can be
expressed as follows:
Can you write the energy conservation equation of the HTF ?
where u, T, k, and ρ are the specific internal energy, temperature, thermal conductivity,
and density of PCM; Tf and U are the temperature of HTF and the overall heat transfer
coefficient between HTF and PCM; and t represents time. The energy conservation
equation of the HTF is also written as follows:
where subscript f denotes the HTF
The internal specific energy at temperature T depends on liquid fraction x and specific
heats of solid and liquid phases Cs and Cl.
T* and Tref are the melting temperature and the reference temperature at zero internal
energy
In addition to the three abovementioned assumptions, if one
assumes that the fluid capacitance is small, the PCM and fluid
energy equations are simplified as follows:
Writing in the NTU (number of transfer units) form, one would have:
where