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Solar Energy 86 (2012) 3460–3469

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Thermal stratification in a hot water tank established by heat loss

from the tank
Jianhua Fan ⇑, Simon Furbo
Department of Civil Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Brovej, Building 118, DK-2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark

Received 29 February 2012; received in revised form 26 July 2012; accepted 30 July 2012
Available online 28 August 2012

Communicated by: Associate Editor Halime Paksoy

Abstract

This paper presents numerical investigations of thermal stratification in a vertical cylindrical hot water tank established by standby
heat loss from the tank. The transient fluid flow and heat transfer in the tank during cooling caused by standby heat loss are calculated by
means of validated computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models. The measured heat loss coefficient for the different parts of the tank is
used as input to the CFD model. Parametric studies are carried out using the validated models to investigate the influence on thermal
stratification of the tank by the downward flow and the corresponding upward flow in the central parts of the tank. Tank design param-
eters such as tank volume, height to diameter ratio and insulation and different initial conditions of the tank are investigated.
It is elucidated how thermal stratification in the tank is influenced by the natural convection and how the heat loss from the tank sides
will be distributed at different levels of the tank at different thermal conditions. The results show that 20–55% of the side heat loss drops
to layers below in the part of the tank without the presence of thermal stratification. A heat loss removal factor is introduced to char-
acterize the effect of the buoyancy driven flow on exchange of heat loss between tank layers by natural convection. Based on results of the
parametric studies, a generalized equation for the heat loss removal factor is obtained by regression which takes into account the influ-
ences of tank volume, height to diameter ratio, tank insulation and initial conditions of the tank. The equation is validated for a 150–
500 l tank insulated with 0–7 cm mineral wool and a tank height to diameter ratio of 1–5. The equation will be implemented in an existing
tank optimization and design program for calculation of thermal performance of a hot water tank.
Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Hot water tank; Thermal stratification; Heat loss; Buoyancy driven flow; Computational fluid dynamics (CFD); Heat loss removal factor

1. Introduction operating hours of the solar collector. The temperature at

Thermal stratification in solar storage tanks has a major
influence on the thermal performance of solar heating sys-
tems. A high degree of thermal stratification in the storage
tank increases the thermal performance of a solar heating
system because the return temperature to the solar collector
is lowered (van Koppen et al., 1979; Furbo and Mikkelsen,
1987; Hollands and Lightstone, 1989). A lower inlet temper-
ature to the solar collector will increase the efficiency and
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +45 45251889; fax: +45 45883282.
E-mail address: jif@byg.dtu.dk (J. Fan).
the upper part of the tank due to heating by a solar collector
is influenced by many factors, such as the heat exchanger
type, the flow rate of the solar collector loop, the solar frac-
tion and the temperatures at the bottom of the tank. For a
low flow system, the temperature at the top of the tank with
a high degree of thermal stratification will be closer to the
desired load temperature, compared to a tank in a high flow
system with a low degree of thermal stratification. There-
fore the auxiliary energy consumption will be decreased
which increases the solar fraction (Furbo and Knudsen,
2006; Andersen and Furbo, 2007).
Thermal stratification in the tank degrades due to mix-
ing induced by the inlet flow, heat diffusion caused by the

0038-092X/$ - see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2012.07.026
 J. Fan, S. Furbo / Solar Energy 86 (2012) 3460–3469
Nomenclature
a the heat loss removal factor, 
D diameter of the tank, m.
Gr temperature gradient in the tank, K/m
H tank height calculated from the tank bottom, m
I the Ith layer countered from the tank bottom, 
K heat loss coefficient of the tank, W/K
N the total number of tank layers, 
q heat flux density, W/m2
Q heat transfer power, W
R2 the coefficient of determination, 
S generation rate of the variable /
t water temperature in the tank, °C
T temperature in the tank (T = t + 273.15), K
d thickness of the insulation material, m
q water density, kg/m3
temperature gradient in the tank and wall-conduction-dri-
ven natural convective flow resulting from thermal conduc-
tion via the tank walls. Knudsen and Furbo (2004)
investigated thermal stratification in solar storage tanks
charged by vertical mantle heat-exchangers and variable
inlet temperatures. The results show that a solar storage
tank with vertical mantle heat-exchanger achieves better
thermal stratification in the tank than a tank with a spiral
heat exchanger. The effect of inlet stratifiers on thermal
stratification in solar storage tanks is experimentally and
theoretically investigated by Shah et al. (2005). The degra-
dation of thermal stratification in a heat storage due to
heat conduction was investigated theoretically by Abdoly
and Rapp (1982). Since the mixing, eddy currents and other
degradation mechanism were not considered, the study
provides the upper limit of the performance of a thermally
stratified tank. AI-Najem (1993) investigated the degrada-
tion of thermal stratification in a solar storage tank. A
model for simulation of the thermal stratification behavior
in the tank was developed and validated against experi-
ments. It was found that a spatially and temporally depen-
dent heat loss parameter is necessary for accurate
simulation of thermal stratification in the initial stage of
the test, while a constant heat loss parameter is adequate
to produce acceptable predictions at the later stage of the
test. A transient, two dimensional CFD model was devel-
oped by Bouhdjar and Harhad (2002) and used to investi-
gate thermal stratification in a heat storage tank with fluid
injection at the top and fluid discharge at the bottom. The
influence on the performance of the storage by fluid prop-
erties and aspect ratio of the cavity was analyzed.
Heat loss from the tank sides helps to build up thermal
stratification in the tank. Due to heat loss to the surround-
ings, the fluid close to the tank wall has a lower tempera-
ture than the fluid at the center of the tank. The relative
colder fluid flows downwards along the tank wall while
3461
l dynamic viscosity of water, kg/(ms)
k thermal conductivity of water, W/(mK)
Subscripts
a ambient
bottom the bottom surface of the tank
equation the factor calculated by the Eq. (11)
flow heat transfer caused by the buoyancy driven
flow
layer average water temperature or average height of
the layer
loss heat loss from the side surface of the tank
side the side surface of the tank
top the top surface of the tank
total the total heat loss of the tank
the fluid with higher temperature rises up in the center of
the tank. The fluid flow and heat transfer in such a tank
is dominated by a transient, three dimensional buoyancy
driven flow. The buoyancy driven convective flow in a cav-
ity has been extensively studied by Patterson and Imberger
(1980); Hyun (1984); Patterson and Armfield (1990); Lin
and Armfield (1999); Oliveski et al. (2003); Papanicolaou
and Belessiotis (2004). These experimental and numerical
studies were focused on the transient features of the natural
convection flow. Lin and Armfield (1999) investigated the
transient processes of cooling down and stratifying an ini-
tially homogeneous fluid by natural convection in a vertical
circular cylinder. A two-dimensional CFD model with
Boussinesq assumption is used in the investigations. The
initial condition of the investigations is a cylinder with fluid
at rest and a uniform fluid temperature the same as the
ambient air. The top and bottom wall of the cylindrical
cavity is insulated while the sidewall is cooled impulsively
from the ambient temperature to a temperature lower than
the ambient temperature. The typical evolution of the tran-
sient natural convection flow is divided into two stages: the
unsteady stage characterized by the development of the
vertical thermal boundary layer on the sidewall and the
quasi-steady stage characterized by a stratified tank. Sca-
lings were obtained for the rate of development of the
boundary layer and the stratification. Oliveski et al.
(2003) presented the results of a numerical and an experi-
mental analysis of velocity and temperature fields inside a
storage tank in a cool-down test. Forty cases of cooling
with four aspect ratios, five insulation thickness and two
different volumes were simulated by a transient two-dimen-
sional CFD model. Focuses of the study is prediction of the
heat transfer coefficient at the sidewall, at the top and the
bottom of the tank. Two correlations for the Nusselt
number were obtained to calculate the average heat trans-
fer coefficient of the tank. The flow and heat transfer
3462 J. Fan, S. Furbo / Solar Energy 86 (2012) 3460–3469
phenomena inside an underground thermal storage tank
naturally cooled down by heat loss was studied numerically
by Papanicolaou and Belessiotis (2004). Comparisons are
made under realistic conditions with preliminary experi-
mental results showing satisfactory agreement.
A majority of the investigations mentioned above
involve intensive CFD simulations which is time
demanding and is not practically applicable for long
term calculation of thermal performance of the heat stor-
age tanks. A simplified one-dimensional model, for
instance the multi-node model, is therefore necessary.
In the multi-node model, the tank is divided into a num-
ber of nodes with an energy balance written for each
node. The model can for instance be incorporated in
TRNSYS (2006) for long term calculation of thermal
performance of storage tanks. Kleinbach et al. (1993)
validated the performance of a one-dimensional multi-
node model incorporated into the TRNSYS program
with experimental data from two different sources. Use
of the multi-node model is recommended for a storage
tank with variable inlets. The validity of another tank
model incorporated in TRNSYS has been investigated
by Cruickshank and Harrison (2010) with a cool-down
test. The disadvantage of these simplified models is that
the buoyancy driven convective flow due to heat loss
from the tank is neglected and the influence of the buoy-
ancy driven flow on thermal stratification in the tank is
therefore not considered.
Buoyancy driven flow in a vertical cylindrical hot water
tank during standby periods were investigated by Fan and
Furbo (submitted for publication). A transient, three-
dimensional CFD model of the hot water storage tank
was developed and validated against thermal measure-
ments. The results show that the CFD tank model predicts
satisfactorily the water temperatures in the tank during
cooling of the tank. Without the presence of thermal strat-
ification, there is a strong downward fluid velocity of
0.003–0.015 m/s, which means that the heat loss from the
tank sides will be moved downwards and thus helps to
build up thermal stratification in the tank. With the pres-
ence of thermal stratification in the tank the buoyancy dri-
ven flow is significantly reduced. This paper presents
parametric analysis of thermal stratification in the tank
using the validated CFD model. Tank design parameters
such as tank volume, height to diameter ratio and insula-
tion and different initial conditions of the tank are investi-
gated. A heat loss removal factor is introduced to
characterize the effect of the buoyancy driven flow on
exchange of heat loss between tank layers by natural con-
vection. The aim of the investigation is to elucidate how
thermal stratification in the tank is established by the nat-
ural convection and how the heat loss from the tank sides
will be distributed at different levels of the tank at different
thermal conditions. The ultimate goal of the investigation
is to find a simple equation to quantify the exchange of
heat loss between tank layers, which can be implemented
in a simple multi-node model.
2. Numeric and experimental studies
CFD calculations are carried out to theoretically inves-
tigate the fluid flow in hot water tanks during cooling by
standby heat loss from the tank. Fig. 1 shows design and
dimensions of the hot water tank. The volume and the
height to diameter ratio of the investigated tanks are shown
in Table 1. A detailed CFD model of the hot water tank
has been developed using the CFD code Fluent 6.3 (Fluent
Inc., 2006) and has been validated against experiments
(Fan and Furbo, submitted for publication). In order to
better resolve the heat transfer and fluid flow in the region
adjacent to the tank wall, a boundary layer mesh is applied
so that there is a fine and dense mesh in the area close to
the tank wall. The 3D tank model includes the steel tank
wall as a solid region and the hot water volume of the tank
as a fluid region while the insulation materials are not
directly modeled. The tank is insulated with mineral wool
with the same thickness for the top surface, the side surface
and the bottom surface of the tank. The effect of the insu-
lation materials is considered by the heat loss coefficients
obtained by the experiments. Mean average ambient air
temperature during the experiment is used as the free
stream temperature of the tank surfaces. Water is used as
the heat storage media. Properties of water and their
dependences on temperature are shown as follows (Furbo,
1997):
Density ½kg=m3  q ¼ 863 þ 1:21  T  0:00257  T 2 ð1Þ
Dynamicviscosity ½kg=ðmsÞ l
 5:5
T
¼ 0:0007  ð2Þ
315
Thermal conductivity ½W=ðmKÞ k ¼ 0:375 þ 8:84  104  T ð3Þ
where T is fluid temperature, [K].
The tank wall material, steel, has a thermal conductivity
of 60 W/K/m and a density of 7850 kg/m3.
Fig. 1. Schematic illustration of a tank consisting of N layers.
 J. Fan, S. Furbo / Solar Energy 86 (2012) 3460–3469
Table 1
Twelve tank models with different tank volumes and different height to
diameter ratios.
Tank volume Height to diameter ratio, H/D
1 2 3 5
150 l X X X Xa
300 l X X X X
500 l X X X X
a
Tank insulation thickness investigated: without any insulation, with
2 cm, 5 cm and 7 cm mineral wool. Experimental investigation is carried
out.
The measured heat loss coefficients for different parts of
the tank are used as input to the CFD model. The heat loss
coefficients are finely tuned within the measurement inaccu-
racy so that the heat loss from the tank calculated by the
CFD calculation is the same as the measured heat loss.
The heat loss coefficient of the top surface, of the side sur-
face and of the bottom surface of the tank insulated with
5 cm mineral wool are given in the equation 4–7 (Fan
and Furbo, submitted for publication). In a similar way,
heat loss coefficients of the tank without any insulation,
with 2 cm and 7 cm mineral wool are obtained respectively.
K top ¼ 0:24 þ 0:00015  t ½W=K ð4Þ
K side ¼ 1:75 þ 0:00148  t ½W=K ð5Þ
K bottom ¼ 0:41 þ 0:00034  t ½W=K ð6Þ
K total ¼ 2:4 þ 0:00198  t ½W=K ð7Þ
where t is the water temperature in the tank, [°C].
Calculation of Rayleigh number shows that the flow is
in the laminar region, therefore the laminar model is used
in the calculation. Transient CFD calculations are per-
formed with a density of water as a function of tempera-
ture, shown in Eq. (1). A time step in the range of 2–4 s
and a cell size of 0.03 m with a eight row of boundary layer
mesh attached to the tank wall are found to be appropriate
and are therefore used in the calculations (Fan and Furbo,
submitted for publication). The PRESTO and second order
upwind method are used for the discretization of the pres-
sure and the momentum/energy equations respectively.
The SIMPLE algorithm is used to treat the pressure–veloc-
ity coupling. The transient simulations start from either a
tank with uniform temperature of 80 °C or a stratified tank
with 80 °C at the top and 16.8 °C at the bottom of the tank.
A zero velocity field is assumed at the start of all simula-
tions. The calculation is considered convergent if the scaled
residual for the continuity equation, the momentum equa-
tions and the energy equation are less than 103, 103 and
106 respectively. The simulation runs with a time step of
2–4 s and a duration of 24 h. One simulation takes approx.
24–48 h for a quad-core processor computer with
4  3 GHz CPU frequency and 4G memory.
Parametric studies using the validated CFD model are
carried out to investigate the influence of tank height to
diameter ratio (H/D) and tank volume on thermal
3463
stratification in the tank. Twelve tank models with different
tank volumes and different height to diameter ratios are
built using Fluent 6.3, see Table 1. In the calculations,
the default insulation of the tank is 5 cm mineral wool.
Investigations are carried out to study water temperatures
and fluid flow in a 150 l tank with a H/D ratio of 5 without
any insulation, with 2 cm, 5 cm, and 7 cm mineral wool
respectively.
In order to analyze the influence of the buoyancy driven
flow on the thermal stratification, the tank is equally
divided into a number of layers (N = 10), numbered
sequentially from the bottom to the top of the tank, see
Fig. 1. Heat loss from the side of the layer I is defined as
Qloss(I) calculated based on conventional heat transfer the-
ory while the heat loss moving from the layer above (I + 1)
to the layer (I) due to the buoyancy driven flow is defined
as Qflow(I). A heat loss removal factor a(I) for interface I is
defined as the ratio between the heat loss moved down by
natural convection and the total amount of heat loss of the
layer. The heat loss of the layer includes both heat loss
from the side of the tank and the heat loss moved down
from the layer above.
Qflow ðIÞ
aðIÞ ¼ ð8Þ
Qflow ðI þ 1Þ þ Qloss ðI þ 1Þ
For the top layer N, the heat loss moving from the layer
above is replaced by the heat loss from the top of the tank.
Qflow ðN  1Þ
aðN  1Þ ¼ ð9Þ
Qtop loss þ Qloss ðN Þ
Thermal stratification in the tank is characterized by a
temperature gradient Gr(I).
T layer ðI þ 1Þ  T layer ðIÞ
GrðIÞ ¼ ð10Þ
H layer ðI þ 1Þ  H layer ðIÞ
where Tlayer(I) is the average fluid temperature of layer I in
K, while Hlayer(I) is the average height of layer I in m mea-
sured from the bottom of the tank.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Influence of tank volume and height to diameter ratio on
thermal stratification
The influence of tank volume and tank height to diam-
eter ratio on thermal stratification caused by standby heat
loss is investigated. Fig. 2 presents mean temperatures of
the tank layers in the 150 l tank with different height to
diameter ratios. The initial condition of the tank is a uni-
form temperature of 80 °C.
The fluid close to the tank wall is cooled down by the
heat loss from the side of the tank, which creates a down-
ward flow along the tank wall. Due to the presence of the
downward flow, the colder fluid accumulates at the bottom
part of the tank. At the center of the tank, there is a slight
upward flow, lifting the relatively warmer fluid at the bulk
3464 J. Fan, S. Furbo / Solar Energy 86 (2012) 3460–3469

Fig. 3. Thermal stratification of a 500 l tank with different height to

Fig. 2. Thermal stratification of a 150 l tank with different height to diameter ratios.
diameter ratios.

the tank temperature at 24 h after the start increases. The

of the tank to a higher level. In this way the buoyancy dri-
influence of H/D ratio on thermal stratification in the tank
ven flow gradually builds up thermal stratification in the
is not as strong as it is for a tank volume of 150 l due to the
tank.
relative small temperature drop during cooling of the 500 l
At 12 h after the start, there is almost no temperature
tank. For a longer standby period, the tank with a larger
stratification in the upper half of the tank (dimensionless
H/D ratio is expected to show better thermal stratification
height 0.5–1). The temperature difference is smaller than
in the tank.
0.3 K from the top of the tank down to a dimensionless
height of 0.5. There is a thermal stratification in the tank
with a H/D ratio of 1 with a temperature increase of 4 K 3.2. The heat loss removal factor
from the bottom of the tank up to the dimensionless height
of 0.5. The degree of thermal stratification at the bottom The heat loss removal factor a(I) is calculated for all the 9
half of the tank increases with an increase of H/D ratio. interfaces and shown in Fig. 4 for a 150 l tank with a H/D
With an increase of H/D ratio from 1 to 5, the temperature ratio of 5 during a cooling test starting with a uniform tank
difference in the bottom half of the tank increases from 4 K temperature of 80 °C. At 3 h after the start, the temperature
to 7.1 K. The slimmer the tank, the stronger the thermal gradient, Gr(I) is very small for the most part of the tank,
stratification in the tank, because of the higher buoyancy 0.2–0.9 K/m for the upper 7 interfaces, showing that there
force due to the greater height of the cold surface of the is almost no temperature gradient at the middle and upper
wall. parts of the tank. At the lower part of the tank the temper-
The H/D ratio influences the minimum temperature at ature gradient, Gr(I) increases to 2.4 K/m and 16 K/m for
the bottom tank layer. The minimum mean water temper- the second and the first interface respectively, indicating
ature of the bottom layer is 69.2 °C for the tank with a thermal stratification at the lower part of the tank. The heat
height to diameter ratio of 1, while the mean temperature removal factor is significantly influenced by the temperature
drops to 65.3 °C for a tank with a height to diameter ratio gradient at small values. Where there is small temperature
of 5. The explanation is that for a constant tank volume the
surface area of the sides of the tank increases with an
increase of the H/D ratio, thus resulting in larger heat loss
from the tank and lower temperature of the water in the
tank with a H/D ratio of 5.
The influence of the H/D ratio on the thermal stratifica-
tion in the tank is more obvious at 24 h after the start. The
temperature difference between the bottom layer and the
top layer of the tank is 4.3 K for the tank with a H/D ratio
of 1 while it increases to 8.8 K for the tank with a H/D
ratio of 5. It can be concluded that the larger the H/D ratio,
the higher the thermal stratification in the tank. The disad- 10
vantage of a tank with a higher H/D ratio is increased heat
loss from the tank, as the tank outer surface area increases
with the increase of H/D ratio. Fig. 4. The influence of temperature gradient on heat loss removal factor
Thermal stratification for a tank volume of 500 l is for a 150 l tank with a H/D ratio of 5 during cooling test starting with a
shown in Fig. 3. With an increase of the tank volume, uniform temperature of 80 °C.
 J. Fan, S. Furbo / Solar Energy 86 (2012) 3460–3469 3465

Fig. 5. Development of the heat loss removal factor versus time for a 150 l Fig. 6. The heat exchange power between layers versus temperature
tank with a H/D ratio of 5 (initial tank condition: uniform temperature gradient in a 150 l tank with a H/D ratio of 5 for a cooling test starting
80 °C). with a uniform temperature of 80 °C.

gradient (0.2–0.9 K/m), a(I) is approx. 0.55, meaning that

55% of the apparent heat loss of the layer placed above
the interface in question plus the heat loss moved down
from the upper parts of the tank to the layer placed above
the interface is transferred down to the layer below the
interface. At the lower part of the tank, the heat loss
removal factor drops to 0.16 and 0.08 for the second and
the first interface respectively. The cooled water is stopped
from flowing downwards as the water at this point is
already colder than the downward flowing water. The heat
loss removal factor is calculated for different time steps and
is shown in Fig. 4. A tendency can be observed that the heat
loss removal factor goes to a lower level at the lower part of
the tank as time proceeds. That is due to the gradual cooling
down of the tank and due to the temperature gradient estab-
lished at the lower part of the tank. Fig. 7. The heat exchange power between layers versus temperature
gradient in a 150 l tank with a H/D ratio of 5 for a cooling test starting
The development of the heat loss removal factor at dif-
with a stratified tank.
ferent times of the cooling process is shown in Fig. 5. At the
upper part of the tank, there is no clear pattern of the part of the tank the heat exchange is significantly reduced
dependence of the factor on time since the heat loss from to a value smaller than 1 W.
the top surface the tank creates strong transient flow and The heat exchange power between layers for a stratified
flow disturbance in the upper central part of the tank. tank is given in Fig. 7. The temperatures at the start of
The transient and stochastic flow could explain the irregu- the test at the upper part of the tank are 80 °C and the tem-
lar heat loss removal factor at the upper interfaces of the peratures of the lower part of the tank are 16.8 °C. A heat
tank. In the middle part and the bottom part of the tank, exchange power of 4–11 W can be observed at the upper
the heat loss removal factor decreases with advance of time part of the tank. The heat exchange power decrease dramat-
due to decreased tank temperature and thus decreased heat ically at the middle part of the tank when the temperature
loss from the tank wall. The differences in the behavior gradient increases from 10 to up to 130 K/m. The strong
between the upper and the rest of the tank could be thermal stratification suppresses the buoyancy driven flow
explained by the different characteristics of the heat loss and therefore reduces the heat exchange by natural convec-
induced flow in the upper part of the tank and the down- tion to a value lower than 1 W. The heat exchange power is
ward flow along the tank wall. The flow in the upper tank in the range of [0.15, 0.15] W at the lower part of the tank
is transient and stochastic while the downward flow along which could be due to disturbed water flow.
the tank wall is laminar and regular.
The heat exchange power between layers by means of 3.3. Influence of the tank height to diameter ratio on heat loss
natural convection is shown in Fig. 6. At the upper part removal factor
of the tank, the heat exchange power between the layers
is in the range of 4–16 W. As long as there is no tempera- The influence of the tank H/D ratio on the heat loss
ture gradient, the power of heat transferred upwards is removal factor is investigated for a tank volume 300 l
equal to or higher than the calculated heat loss from a layer and 500 l respectively. Fig. 8 shows the heat loss removal
(6–10.4 W from 1/10 of the tank side), while at the lower factor for a 500 l tank with different H/D ratios. At the
3466 J. Fan, S. Furbo / Solar Energy 86 (2012) 3460–3469
Fig. 8. The heat loss removal factor for a 500 l tank with different H/D
ratios (initial tank condition: uniform temperature 80 °C).
Fig. 9. The influence of tank volume on the heat loss removal factor for a
tank with a H/D ratio of 3 (initial tank condition: uniform temperature
80 °C).
bottom part of the tank, where a large temperature gradi-
ent is expected, the heat loss removal factor is insignifi-
cantly influenced by the H/D ratio of the tank. In the
middle part of the tank with the dimensionless height in
the range of 0.4–0.8, the influence of the H/D ratio of the
tank on the factor becomes significant. The larger the H/
D ratio, the smaller the heat loss removal factor. The
increase of the heat removal factor with decreasing H/D
ratio and thus increasing tank diameter could be explained
by the influence of H/D ratio on the volume flow rate of the
downward flow for a 500 l tank. Since the tank with a lar-
ger diameter has a larger volume flow rate of the down-
ward flow, the heat exchange between the layers increase
with the increase of tank diameter.
With gradual cooling of the tank, the influence of the
tank H/D ratio on the factor gets smaller especially in
the middle part of the tank (dimensionless height 0.4–0.6).
3.4. Influence of tank volume on heat loss removal factor
The influence of tank volume on the heat loss removal
factor for a H/D ratio of 3 and 5 is shown in Figs. 9 and
10 respectively. At the bottom part and the middle part
Fig. 10. The influence of tank volume on the heat loss removal factor for a
tank with a H/D ratio of 5 (initial tank condition: uniform temperature
80 °C).
of the tank the heat loss removal factor increases with
the increase of tank volume. This trend can be observed
for the H/D ratio of 3 and 5. The explanation is that with
an increase of the tank volume, the perimeter of the tank
side wall increase proportionally, resulting in an increased
area of the annular region where the downward flow pre-
sents. Consequently the volume flow rate of the downward
flow increases, thus bringing more cooled water down to
the layer below.
At the upper part of the tank, there is no clear depen-
dence of H/D ratio on the factor.
3.5. Heat loss removal factor as a function of temperature
gradient
Detailed investigations are carried out to determine the
influence of initial tank conditions, tank height to diameter
ratio, tank volume and tank insulation on the temperature
gradient built up by heat loss from the tank. Based on
results of the CFD calculations, a generalized equation is
obtained by regression which calculates the heat loss
removal factor for a given temperature gradient in the
tank. The equation takes into account the influences of
tank volume, H/D ratio, tank insulation and initial condi-
tions of the tank, see following equation:
GrðIÞ 6 0:25;aðIÞ ¼ 0:65  GrðIÞGrðIÞ > 0:25; aðIÞ
1
¼
2:32 þ 1:39D2 H þ 0:116H =D
  T layer ðIþ1ÞT a
qloss ðI þ 1Þ 1
 ln GrðIÞ85:8þ39:5D2 Hþ18:3H =D ð11Þ
8:12H þ 2:23D þ 4:71H =D
where H is the tank height in m; D is the tank diameter in
m; qloss(I + 1) is the heat loss from the side of the tank layer
I + 1 in W/m2. Tlayer(I + 1) is the average water tempera-
ture in the tank layer I + 1, °C; Ta is the ambient air
temperature, °C.
The coefficient of determination of the equation is calcu-
lated using the equation.
 J. Fan, S. Furbo / Solar Energy 86 (2012) 3460–3469 3467

Fig. 11. The heat loss removal factor at different tank initial conditions. Fig. 12. The heat removal factors for a 150 l tank with different height to
P diameter ratios.
2
ða  aequation Þ
R2 ¼ 1  P 2
ð12Þ
ða  aÞ the heat loss removal factor. The heat loss removal factor is
where a is the heat loss removal factor determined based on calculated by Eq. (11). There is a good agreement between
CFD calculations; a is the average of the heat loss removal the factors predicted by the equation and the factors deter-
factors determined based on CFD calculations; aequation is mined by CFD calculations. The coefficient of determina-
the heat loss removal factor determined by the Eq. (11). tion is 0.86, 0.96, 0.96 and 0.91 for a height to diameter
ratio of 1, 2, 3 and 5 respectively, see Table 2. The maxi-
mum difference between a(I) found by Eq. (11) and CFD
3.5.1. Initial conditions of the tank
is 0.23.
Results of the CFD calculations for the tank with a uni-
The influence of height to diameter ratio on heat loss
form temperature and for the stratified tank are shown in
removal factor is determined for a tank volume of 300 l
Fig. 11. The heat loss removal factor is calculated for the
and a tank volume of 500 l. The results of a 500 l tank
interfaces at every 3 h. An interface with a heat exchange
are shown in Fig. 13.
lower than 1 W is not taken into account in order to obtain
A comparison between Figs. 12 and 13 shows that with
a good accuracy. The lower the temperature gradient, the
an increase of the tank volume, the range of temperature
higher the heat loss removal factor. The trend is true both
gradients between layers decreases. This is due to the fact
for the tank with an initially uniform tank temperature and
that the water temperature in a 500 l is relatively higher
for the tank with stratified temperatures. The dependence
tank than the temperatures in a 150 l tank due to relatively
of heat loss removal factor on temperature gradient in
larger thermal capacity of the 500 l tank.
the tank is not influenced by the initial conditions of the
The heat loss removal factor calculated by the Eq. (11) is
tank.
compared to the factors determined based on CFD calcu-
The heat loss removal factor predicted by Eq. (11) is
lations. The coefficient of determinations for a 300 l tank
compared to the factor determined based on CFD calcula-
and a 500 l tank with different height to diameter ratio is
tions. It can be seen from Fig. 11 that the equation predicts
listed in Table 2. A good agreement between the predic-
well the factors for all layers of the tank with a maximum
tions by the equation and the CFD calculations is
difference up to 0.1. The coefficient of determination is
observed. The maximum difference between a(I) found by
0.91. The equation can be used for a tank with an initially
Eq. (11) and CFD is 0.22 and 0.20 for the 300 l tank and
uniform temperature of 80 °C and a tank with stratified
the 500 l tank respectively.
temperatures.

3.5.2. Height to diameter ratio 3.5.3. Tank volume

The influence of tank height to tank diameter ratio (H/ The influence of the tank volume for a height to diame-
D) is investigated for a tank volume of 150 l, 300 l and 500 l ter ratio of 3 is shown in Fig. 14. The heat loss removal
respectively. Fig. 12 shows the heat loss removal factors for
a tank of 150 l with a height to diameter ratio of 1, 2, 3 and
Table 2
5. For a tank layer with a large temperature gradient
Coefficient of determination, R2, [].
(higher than 15 K/m), the height to diameter ratio has
Tank volume H/D
insignificant influence on the heat loss removal factor. With
the decrease of temperature gradient lower than 15 K/m, 1 2 3 5
the effect of heat exchange by means of buoyancy driven 150 l 0.86 0.96 0.96 0.91
flow is slightly influenced by height to diameter ratio of 300 l 0.86 0.98 0.96 0.97
500 l 0.92 0.96 0.98 0.98
the tank. The larger the height to diameter ratio, the lower
3468 J. Fan, S. Furbo / Solar Energy 86 (2012) 3460–3469
Fig. 13. The heat removal factors for a tank volume of 500 l and different
height to diameter ratios.
Fig. 14. The heat removal factors for different tank volumes and a height
to diameter ratio of 3.
factor is determined based on CFD calculations. If the tem-
perature gradient is either small enough (smaller than 1 K/
m) or large enough (larger than 8 K/m), tank volume has
almost no influence on the dependence of heat loss removal
factor as a function of the temperature gradient in the tank.
If the temperature gradient is in the range of 1–8 K/m, tank
volume has minor influence on the removal of heat loss by
means of buoyancy driven flow along the tank wall. The
heat loss removal factor increases with decrease of tank
volume.
3.5.4. Thickness of tank insulation material
The influence of tank insulation on the heat loss removal
factor is investigated with a tank volume of 150 and a
height to diameter ratio of 5. For all the investigations a
uniform temperature of 80 °C in the tank is assumed.
Fig. 15 shows the heat loss removal factor of a tank with-
out insulation after every 6 h from the start. The factor cal-
culated based on CFD calculations is shown as points
while the factor determined by the Eq. (11) is shown in
curves. Each point stands for the result of an interface.
After 6 h, the temperature gradient increases from 2 K/m
at the top interface of the tank to 18 K/m at the bottom
interface of the tank while the heat loss removal factor
Fig. 15. The heat removal factors versus temperature gradient for a tank
without any insulation (initial tank condition: uniform temperature
80 °C).
decreases from 0.45 at the top of the tank to 0.08 at the
bottom of the tank. After 12 h, the temperature gradient
decreases to 14 at the bottom part of the tank due to heat
loss from the tank while a minor change of the factor and
the temperature gradient is seen at the top part of the tank.
The Eq. (11) predicts well development of the heat loss
removal factors as the tank is gradually cooled down.
The coefficient of determination is 0.97.
Fig. 16 shows heat loss removal factors for a 150 l tank
with a height to diameter ratio of 5 and with different thick-
nesses of the tank insulation material. The points stand for
results of the interfaces at every 3 h after the start. The
smaller the thickness of the insulation material, the higher
the heat loss removal factor. The explanation is that with a
decrease of the tank insulation thickness and increase of
the heat loss from the side of the tank, driving forces of
the buoyancy driven flow increases, thus creating larger
downward flow along the tank wall and increasing the heat
exchange between the layers.
It is planned that the Eq. (11) can later be implemented
in an easy-to-use simulation program which calculates
thermal performance of a hot water tank.
Fig. 16. The heat removal factors versus temperature gradient for
different thicknesses of tank insulation (initial tank condition: uniform
temperature 80 °C).
 J. Fan, S. Furbo / Solar Energy 86 (2012) 3460–3469
4. Conclusions and outlook
By means of CFD calculations, thermal stratification in
a vertical cylindrical hot water tank during cooling caused
by heat loss is investigated. Parametric studies are carried
out using the validated models in order to investigate the
influence on thermal stratification of the tank by the down-
ward flow and the corresponding upward flow in the cen-
tral parts of the tank. Tank design parameters such as
tank volume, height to diameter ratio and insulation and
different initial conditions of the tank are investigated.
A heat loss removal factor is introduced and used to
characterize the effect of the buoyancy driven flow on the
heat exchange between layers by natural convection. The
results show that 20–55% of the side heat loss drops to lay-
ers below if the temperature gradient is in the range of 0.2–
1.5 K/m which means that the heat loss from the tank helps
to build up thermal stratification in the tank. With the pres-
ence of temperature gradient the buoyancy driven flow is
signification reduced. A simple equation is obtained by
regression which calculates the heat loss removal factor
for a given temperature gradient. The equation takes into
account the influences of tank volume, height to diameter
ration, tank insulation and initial conditions of the tank.
The equation is validated for a 150–500 l tank insulated
with 0–7 cm mineral wool and a tank height to diameter
ratio of 1–5. In the future the equation will be implemented
in an existing tank model for calculation of thermal perfor-
mance of a hot water tank.
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