A general analysis of phase change energy storage for solar energy applications
- Rice Univ., Houston, TX (United States). Lab. for Computer Science and Engineering
A unified approach is developed for the analysis of one, two, or three-phase melting of solidification of a semi-infinite medium with or without subcooling or superheating and imposed with constant, monotonic, or cyclic temperature or flux conditions. A source and sink method is presented in which a sink front is used to characterize a freeze front. An integrodifferential equation is then derived for the interface position which is linearized locally for numerical solution. This position is, in turn, used as input for the determination of the temperature distrubution and energy storage and release in different phases of the medium. The numerical solution presented in this paper has shown to be unique, convergent, stable, and accurate. The analysis has been applied to the study of phase change in a subcooled paraffin wax immposed with a cyclic temperature condition. Test results yield some interesting phenomena related to the merging of phase-change fronts and hysteresis of energy storage and release, among others, which have not previously been reported in the literature. Their relations to the energy storage and release are particularly stressed in the paper.
- OSTI ID:
- 6810839
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Solar Energy Engineering; (United States), Vol. 4; ISSN 0199-6231
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
25 ENERGY STORAGE
PHASE CHANGE MATERIALS
ENERGY STORAGE
SOLAR ENERGY CONVERSION
NUMERICAL SOLUTION
THERMOCHEMICAL HEAT STORAGE
HYSTERESIS
PHASE STUDIES
CONVERSION
ENERGY CONVERSION
HEAT STORAGE
MATERIALS
STORAGE
142000* - Solar Energy- Heat Storage- (1980-)
250600 - Energy Storage- Thermal
250800 - Energy Storage- Chemical
140900 - Solar Thermal Utilization