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Computational analysis of a pipe flow distributor for a thermocline based thermal energy storage system

Journal Article · · Journal of Solar Energy Engineering
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4024927· OSTI ID:1358426
 [1];  [2];  [2];  [3];  [3]
  1. Univ. of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX (United States); UTEP
  2. Univ. of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX (United States)
  3. National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations
In this paper, the overall efficiency of a concentrating solar power (CSP) plant depends on the effectiveness of thermal energy storage (TES) system. A single tank TES system consists of a thermocline region which produces the temperature gradient between hot and cold storage fluid by density difference. Preservation of this thermocline region in the tank during charging and discharging cycles depends on the uniformity of the velocity profile at any horizontal plane. Our objective is to maximize the uniformity of the velocity distribution using a pipe-network distributor by varying the number of holes, distance between the holes, position of the holes and number of distributor pipes. For simplicity, we consider that the diameter of the inlet, main pipe, the distributor pipes and the height and the width of the tank are constant. We use Hitec® molten salt as the storage medium and the commercial software Gambit 2.4.6 and Fluent 6.3 for the computational analysis. We analyze the standard deviation in the velocity field and compare the deviations at different positions of the tank height for different configurations. Since the distance of the holes from the inlet and their respective arrangements affects the flow distribution throughout the tank; we investigate the impacts of rearranging the holes position on flow distribution. Impact of the number of holes and distributor pipes are also analyzed. We analyze our findings to determine a configuration for the best case scenario.
Research Organization:
Univ. of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
Contributing Organization:
NRLE
DOE Contract Number:
EE0004008
OSTI ID:
1358426
Journal Information:
Journal of Solar Energy Engineering, Journal Name: Journal of Solar Energy Engineering Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 136; ISSN 0199-6231
Publisher:
ASME
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (5)

Enhancement of specific heat capacity of high-temperature silica-nanofluids synthesized in alkali chloride salt eutectics for solar thermal-energy storage applications journal February 2011
Analysis of Heat Storage and Delivery of a Thermocline Tank Having Solid Filler Material journal March 2011
Performance study of one-dimensional models for stratified thermal storage tanks journal February 1993
Development of a Molten-Salt Thermocline Thermal Storage System for Parabolic Trough Plants journal January 2002
Molten-salt thermal energy storage in thermoclines under different environmental boundary conditions journal November 2010

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Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
CFD
computer software
concentrated solar power
cycles
flow (dynamics)
fluids
molten salt
pipe flow
pipes
renewable energy
storage
temperature gradient
thermal energy storage
thermocline