Experimental investigation of a thermal storage system using phase change materials

A home-made heat exchanger (HE), used in the evaluation of the performance of different phase change materials (PCMs), was designed, mounted and operated. The HE unit was used as a heat thermal storage system for recovering the residual energy coming from a hydrogen cycle, which could be in turn use...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Cano, D., Fúnez Guerra, Carlos, Rodriguez, L., Valverde, Jose Luis, Sánchez Silva, María Luz
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2016
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha
Repositorio:RUIdeRA. Repositorio Institucional de la UCLM
OAI Identifier:oai:ruidera.uclm.es:10578/29635
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10578/29635
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Phase change materials
Heat exchanger
Latent heat storage
Hydrogen cycle
Materiales de cambio de fase
Intercambiador de calor
Almacenamiento de calor latente
Descripción
Sumario:A home-made heat exchanger (HE), used in the evaluation of the performance of different phase change materials (PCMs), was designed, mounted and operated. The HE unit was used as a heat thermal storage system for recovering the residual energy coming from a hydrogen cycle, which could be in turn used in building air-conditioning facilities. Four PCMs (Rubitherm® RT28, Rubitherm® RT48, Rubitherm® RT55 and Mikrocaps PCM35; the latter supplied as a slurry of microcapsules) was selected for their suitable thermal properties. Water was used as the heat transfer fluid (HTF) while the PCM was tightly stored inside the shell. Among all the studied PCMs, Rubitherm® RT48 presented the best thermal performance since it accumulated the maximum amount of energy. The influence of the HTF flow rate on the thermal performance of the shell and tube HE was also evaluated. Low HTF flow rates led to high values of heat transferred. Finally, different operation modes (watertight and countercurrent PCM flow) were compared by using Mikrocaps PCM35. PCM countercurrent flow system showed to be the best experimental set-up configuration system for energy transfer, reaching values of heat accumulation about 71% higher than that shown by the watertight mode.