Thermal Analysis of a Sensible Heat Thermal Energy Storage System Using Circular-Shaped Slag and Concrete for Medium- to High-Temperature Applications /

Abstract

Thermal energy storage (TES) systems are a technique for storing thermal energy in a storage media for later use in industrial processes to balance demand. Decrease dependency on nonrenewable energy reserves while shifting part of the load to renewable energy resources are both necessary and desirable outcomes. The level of nonrenewable energy reserves is diminishing on a constant basis. It is therefore important to store the thermal energy to be utilized later on. Due to the shortage of energy supply, there is a demand in research of thermal energy storage (TES), therefore an agile field in applied energy. The proposed sensible thermal energy storage tank, which is comprised of concrete blocks and heat transfer fluid (HTF) passageway has been used for further evaluation. The introduction of slag and concrete particles into the heat transfer fluid route is done in order to evaluate the performance of the TES system. Ansys fluent has been used for numerical modeling to develop the combined energy balancing technique with enthalpy based methodology for analysis of charging and discharging cycles for a specific period of time. The numerical modeling results shows that during charging and discharging cycles of the thermal energy storage system, the thermal distribution of temperature has varied at various time intervals during the cycle. For the purpose of thermal performance study, two distinct configurations are analyzed by using numerical simulations. Circular slag particles are put in front of the HTF flow in the first configuration, while circular concrete particles are placed in front of the HTF flow in the second configuration. In compared to a TES tank that was filled with slag, the concrete-filled TES tank charged and discharged more swiftly than the former. TES tanks loaded with concrete are more efficient than TES tanks filled with slag, according to the research.