Effects of Nanofluids on the Performance of a PCM-Based Thermal Energy Storage System
Publication: Journal of Energy Engineering
Volume 143, Issue 4
Abstract
To study the thermal effects of using nanofluid as a heat transfer fluid (HTF) in a thermocline-type packed-bed energy storage tank filled with spherical phase-changing material (PCM) capsules, an in-house Fortran code is developed and validated using existing experimental and numerical data. The current assessment study shows that use of a nanofluid as HTF is able to accelerate the charging and discharging periods, hence positively affecting the thermal storage efficiency. For instance, using a nanofluid with a 5% nanoparticle concentration as HFT would reduce the charging/discharging period by about 20%. Hence, the current findings reveal that the use of a nanofluid as HTF should be considered for future design of thermocline-type packed-bed energy storage tanks of commercial size. The fact that the nanoparticles’ concentration is directly affecting the heat transfer rate can be used as an adjustable parameter during the design and optimization stages of the thermal storage.
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Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge Prof. D. C. Kyritsis for the technical discussions during the progress of this study and for his comments on the final manuscript. The first author conducted part of this work while being hosted by Dr. J. Ik Lee as a visiting Professor at the Department of Nuclear and Quantum Engineering, KAIST, South Korea.
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Information & Authors
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Published In
Journal of Energy Engineering
Volume 143 • Issue 4 • August 2017
Copyright
©2017 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jun 22, 2016
Accepted: Oct 14, 2016
Published online: Feb 13, 2017
Discussion open until: Jul 13, 2017
Published in print: Aug 1, 2017
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