COMPLEX ENGINEERING PROBLEM ME 333

PACKED BED LATENT

HEAT SYSTEM

Hamza Abbas 2017133

Wajeeh Ur Rehman 2017910
Muhammad Yaseen 2017344
Muhammad Talha Asif 2017326
 Packed Bed Latent Heat System

Muhammad Yaseena, Hamza Abbasa, Muhammad Talha Asifa and

Wajeeh Ur Rehmana
a
Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Informationand Technology,Topi,Swabi,Pakistan.

Keywords: Latent Heat, heat treatment, Heat storage density.

Abstract

This paper is aimed at analyzing the heat storage capacity of packed bed latent bed heat.  The packed
bed is composed of spherical capsules filled with paraffin wax as PCM usable with a solar water
heating system .In this study, the factor used in it is flow rate of water. The water used as heat
transfer fluid (HTF) to transfer heat from the solar collector to the storage tank also acts as sensible
heat storage material. The results indicate that for the proper modeling of performance of the
system the phase change temperature range must be accurately known, and should be taken into
account.

Introduction

In the universe energy can be stored as sensible heat, latent heat, reaction heat, or combination of
these [1,2].So in the effort of storing thermal energy in a short region efforts are being made and one
of them is the use of latent bed heat storage which has its applications on solar thermal energy
storage, lowmtemperature storage systems for central air conditioning, energy efficient buildings
and waste heat recovery systems[3]. Due to the advantage of large surface to volume ratio and of
high heat storage density, small size of the system and a narrow temperature change, the phase
change materials in latent heat systems are promising heat storage materials[4].
The first analytical study on modeling of the packed bed was conducted by Schumann [5] and most
of the work reported till date has been focused on Schumann’s model.In the modern analysis
Laybourn [6] predicted the heat transfer rates of cold storage tank during charging and discharging
for building cooling applications with rectangular capsules using the concept of thermal resistance.
The main objective of this work is to investigate phase change temperature range of performance of
latent heat thermal energy storage systems and the effect of inlet heat transfer fluid temperature
and the fluid flow rate. Thermal energy storage units are used to accumulate thermal energy from
solar, geothermal, or waste heat sources .The thermal capacity of these tanks can be further
increased by including latent heat, which gives rise to latent heat storage (LHS) units. Typically, LHS
tanks contain spherical capsules filled with paraffin as phase change material. This example models
the flow through a packed-bed storage tank, and it includes the effects of heat transfer with phase
change and local thermal non equilibrium while charging the LHS unit.
3D Model

It is the 3D model of the packed bed latent heat storage system in which energy is stored in center and material
used are Glass wool which is used at outer section other are paraffin liquid and paraffin solid.

Working principle of heat storage system

The phase change material (PCM) plays an important role in energy conservation because of its high
average density with very small temperature change, in heat storage system. Solar thermal energy
can be captured through natural convection in heat storage system. The amount of heat storage
depends upon the type of PCM was used, specific heat of medium and temperature change. This
works on both principles, latent heat and sensible heat.
They are the latent heat storage materials, as because of variation in change in temperature they
change their state. Due to change in temperature the bonds within PCM breaks, the material change
its state from solid to liquid. During phase change process the temperature remains constant, and
heat is stored as latent heat. The PCM stored heat without significant change in temperature. When
the surrounding temperature around a liquid material falls, the PCM solidifies and releases its stored
latent heat, which it stored when it was a solid paraffin wax.

The spherical capsule, contains water with PCM, used for an air-conditioning commercial
applications. Heat transfer fluid flows from the spherical cylinder from one inlet to outlet as shown in
above diagram and this thermal energy storage system is insulated from surrounding to minimize the
loss of energy which is stored as latent heat or sensible hat for various applications.
Numerical and experimental investigation
In this study we use COSMOL Multiphysics, which uses the finite element method to solve equations.
The thermal storage unit which is spherical in our case has length of approximately 0.85m and
insulated by 50mm thick insulated sheet for minimizing the heat loss to the environment.

Figure 2 Figure 3

Some of the basic assumption while investigating the heat flow of HTS.
 Variation of temperature is along the axial direction only.
 The flow in tank is incompressible and axial.
 There is no heat generation.
 Radiant heat transfer is negligible.
 Figure 4

Fluid

Fluid flows in this section with an inlet and outlet .In this section energy is stored because of change
of phase of substance without change in temperature. It means that the latent heat transfer occurs
from this surface to the outer surface as the heat transfer occurs at same temperature, so that heat can
be stored in this section for a long time.

Figure 5
 Thermal insulation

Insulation is made so that energy which has been stored because of the phase change process by
applying high pressure cannot go out of the section. In this way, we have increased effectiveness of
latent heat storage system.

The following figure shows that energy stored in storage section is because of the pressure and
distribution as shown
At outer section of storage compartment there is a temperature distribution (because of software issue
it cannot be shown in figure) which is maximum at center point
Graphs

The following graph shows that there is mostly a decreasing value of the reciprocal of step size with increasing
the time step as can be shown from the following below graph

This graph shows that with increasing the number of iterations the error reduces to a comparatively larger
extent

Conclusion
This experiment was performed to find the heat transfer through thermal heat storage system due to
latent heat and sensible heat transfer with the help of phase change material (PCM), paraffin. Due to
phase change of PCM the stored due to solar or other energy can be easily used for many applications.
This is also investigates on the response of PCM in TES, for charging and discharging energy modes.
The working fluid mass flow as well as in and out flow temperature was studied. With controlling all
these factors like materials of PCM, inlet and outlet temperature, fluid flow and time to charge fully
under these conditions can easily increase the effectiveness of TES.

References

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[5] Schumann TEW. Heat transfer: a liquid flowing through a porous prism.
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