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Article history: The focus of the present work is to perform parametric studies on the performance of a packed bed stor-
Received 1 December 2012 age unit filled with phase change material (PCM) encapsulated spherical containers, suitable for low tem-
Accepted 19 October 2013 perature solar air heating applications. A parametric analysis was carried out using the validated
Available online 16 November 2013
enthalpy based numerical model that considers the thermal gradient inside the PCM container. The
results of simulation analysis showed that the size of the PCM ball, fluid inlet temperature and the mass
Keywords: flow rate of the heat transfer fluid (HTF) influenced respectively the heat transfer area in the packed bed,
Latent heat storage
temperature difference between the HTF and PCM and the surface convective heat transfer coefficient
Solar air heating
Phase change material
between the HTF and PCM balls. The poor thermal conductivity of the PCM has only negligible effect
Packed bed storage on heat transfer due to high surface convective resistance provided by the air. The influence of various
Enthalpy modeling parameters for the selected range of values were analyzed using the charging time, instantaneous heat
stored and cumulative heat stored during the charging process.
Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
0196-8904/$ - see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2013.10.042
S. Karthikeyan et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 78 (2014) 74–80 75
Nomenclature
decreased in the order of the sphere, cylinder, plate and tube. Bilir using the same mathematical model. However, their model also
and Ilken [8] investigated the inward solidification problem of a accommodates the effect of varying inlet temperature to the stor-
PCM encapsulated in a cylindrical and spherical container. The en- age tank to simulate the hot water coming from the solar collector.
thalpy based control volume technique with the third kind of Karthikeyan and Velraj [19] made a comparative study of three dif-
boundary conditions were used to formulate and solve the govern- ferent mathematical models for the packed bed latent heat storage
ing dimensionless equations. Assis et al. [9] experimentally studied system, comprised of a cylindrical storage tank filled with paraffin
the melting of the PCM in a spherical shell which includes the visu- encapsulated spherical containers. They reported the validity of
alization of the process, and compared it with the transient numer- the models for air and water as the heat transfer fluids, at different
ical solution performed using Fluent 6.0 software. mass flow rates and ball sizes.
Saitoh and Hirose [10] have reported the results of theoretical The major focus of this paper is to perform the parametric stud-
and experimental investigation on the transient thermal perfor- ies on a packed bed storage unit filled with paraffin encapsulated
mance of a TES unit based on the capsule diameter, the flow rate inside the spherical containers suitable for low temperature air
of HTF, the type of PCMs, the capsule material and the difference heating applications using the enthalpy based numerical model.
between the inlet HTF temperature and melting temperature of The developed mathematical model and the numerical code writ-
the PCM. Chen and Yue [11] developed a one dimensional lump ten using ‘C’ language were used to solve the equations. The valida-
model to determine the thermal characteristics of a cool thermal tion of numerical results using the experimental data for the
storage system using water/ice as the PCM. Later, they developed similar configuration was reported by Karthikeyan and Velraj
a one dimensional porous medium model [12] that showed good [19]. The influence of various parameters such as mass flow rate
agreement with the experiments compared to their earlier work. of the HTF, temperature of the HTF maintained at inlet to the stor-
Watanabe et al. [13] developed and studied a heat storage system age tank, ball size of the PCM capsule and effective thermal con-
that consisted of horizontal cylindrical capsules filled with three ductivity of the PCM was analyzed based on the charging time,
types of PCM with different melting temperature. Their results instantaneous heat stored and cumulative heat stored during the
proved that the charging and discharging rate were improved by charging process of the storage unit.
the use of multiple PCM. Cho and Choi [14] experimentally inves-
tigated the thermal characteristics of paraffin in a spherical capsule
2. Mathematical model
packed inside a storage tank at different values of the Reynolds
number and inlet temperatures. Benmansour et al. [15] carried
The physical problem considered in the present investigation is
out a two dimensional numerical and experimental analysis, to
described and the corresponding mathematical formulation of the
understand the transient axial and radial thermal dispersion on a
problem is given in this section.
cylindrical packed bed storage filled with spherical PCM (paraffin)
capsules with air as the heat transfer fluid (HTF). Regin et al. [16]
numerically investigated the effect of the phase change tempera- 2.1. Statement of the problem
ture range, the size of the PCM capsule, inlet heat transfer fluid
temperature and fluid flow rate on the performance of the packed Fig. 1 shows the physical representation of the packed bed con-
bed latent heat storage system, consisting of spherical capsules for sidered for the analysis. An insulated cylindrical tank of the se-
solar water heating applications. The solid–solid phase change that lected aspect ratio (L/D) is randomly packed with ‘n’ numbers of
occurs before the onset of the actual melting phase change was PCM encapsulated HDPE spherical balls. The HTF that enters from
also considered in the numerical solution. Cheralathan et al. [17] the bottom flows through the porous spacing of the packed bed
performed a numerical analysis and parametric studies on a PCM and exits at the top of the tank. The HTF is air, and the PCM is com-
encapsulated cool thermal energy storage unit integrated with a mercial grade paraffin. The phase change temperature and latent
refrigeration system. They have used the porous medium model heat of fusion obtained from the DSC analysis reported by
with three different time domains as suggested by Chen and Yue Karthikeyan and Velraj [19] and the other thermo physical proper-
[12]. Nallusamy et al. [18] have also investigated the performance ties provided by the manufacturer are used in the numerical
of the similar storage unit for solar water heating applications simulation. Table 1 lists the thermo physical properties of the
76 S. Karthikeyan et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 78 (2014) 74–80
@Hp @2T p 2 @T p
qp ¼ kp þ kp ð2Þ
x @t @r 2 r @r
Table 2
Parameters considered and their range of values.
Parameters Values
The influences of the PCM ball size, HTF inlet temperature, mass 0.6
flow rate and the thermal conductivity of the PCM on the perfor- 0.4
mance of the storage system are discussed based on the results
of the charging time, instantaneous heat stored, and the cumula- 0.2
tive heat stored evaluated for the range of parameters considered 0
in the analysis. 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500
Time, min
4.1. Effect of the PCM ball size (b)
Fig. 2a–c shows the charging time at various bed height, instan- 7000
taneous heat stored and cumulative heat stored respectively for m = 0.035 kg/s
6000 Tf = 70 oC
Cumulative heat stored, kJ
the variation in the ball diameters of 60, 70, 80 and 100 mm. All
k = 0.4 W/m K
the figures were drawn for the constant values of the HTF flow rate 5000
of 0.035 kg s1, inlet HTF temperature of 70 °C, effective thermal
4000
conductivity of 0.4 W m1 K1. The variation in the diameter of
the ball influences the number of balls in the packed bed, and this 3000
varies the convective surface area of the balls, their porosity and d = 60 mm
d = 70 mm
the maximum value of the internal conductive resistance. It is esti- 2000
d = 80 mm
mated, that the increase in the diameter of the ball from 60 mm to d = 100 mm
1000
100 mm decreases the total number of balls in the packed bed from
420 to 87, and this reduces the convective surface area from 0
4.75 m2 to 2.73 m2. In addition, increasing the ball size from 60 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500 550
to 100 mm increases the maximum possible internal conductive Time, min
resistance, and the increase in the porosity from 0.39 to 0.42 re- (c)
duces the velocity, vmax from 0.82 m s1 to 0.78 m s1, and the heat
transfer coefficient from 41.6 W m2 K1 to 29.0 W m2 K1. The Fig. 2. Effect of the ball size on (a) charging time (b) instantaneous heat stored (c)
combined effects of increase in internal conductive resistance cumulative heat stored.
and the decrease in velocity reduce the rate of heat transfer, and
hence, the charging time is increased from 290 to 450 min. It is ob-
served from Fig. 2a that for a given increase in the diameter of the at a uniform rate. However, the uniform extraction of heat is re-
balls, there is a proportionate uniform increase in charging time at quired during the discharging process. Under these circum-
all heights of the storage tank. stances, small sized balls will be advantageous for the charging
Fig. 2b shows the instantaneous heat stored in the storage unit application, and large sized balls will be advantageous for appli-
for different ball sizes. It is observed that the instantaneous heat cations that demand a uniform heat supply in smaller quantity.
transfer varies rapidly during the initial period of the charging It is seen from Fig. 2c that the total heat stored in the storage unit
process, and the slope decreases during the later period of the is marginally higher in the case of smaller diameter balls when
charging process for all the ball sizes. However, the larger diam- compared to the larger diameter balls. This is due to the fact that,
eter of the balls experiences lesser non-uniformity after an appre- as the ball diameter is decreased from 100 to 60 mm, the void
ciable decrease in the heat transfer, during the initial periods. For fraction decreases from 0.42 to 0.39, and this increases the quan-
any thermal storage application, the charging of PCM at a faster tity of the PCM inside the storage unit and hence higher heat
rate is advantageous and charging the storage tank need not be stored.
78 S. Karthikeyan et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 78 (2014) 74–80
400 between the bed heights of x/L = 1 to x/L = 0.2 is 250, 140, 105
and 85 min respectively for the different inlet HTF temperatures
300 of 67, 70, 75 and 80 °C. The low temperature of the HTF at the
inlet also decreases the temperature difference between the HTF
200 and the PCM along the height of the bed, and hence, there is an
Tf = 67 deg C appreciable difference in the charging time between the bottom
100 Tf = 70 deg C and top of the storage tank. This difference in the charging time be-
Tf = 75 deg C
Tf = 80 deg C tween the top and bottom of the storage tank decreases at a higher
0 HTF inlet temperature.
0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Fig. 3b shows the variation of the instantaneous heat stored in
Bed height, x/L the storage unit for different inlet fluid temperatures. The instan-
(a) taneous heat transfer is directly proportional to the temperature
difference between the HTF and PCM. The variation of instanta-
neous heat transfer w.r.t time, for the inlet HTF temperature of
80 °C, is at faster rate from 1.7 kW to 0 kW within a time span
Instantaneous heat stored, kW
varies.
5000
4.3. Effect of the mass flow rate of HTF
4000
3000 Fig. 4 shows the effect of varying the mass flow rate of the HTF
m = 0.035 kg/s Tf = 67 deg C on the performance of the storage unit. For this analysis, three
2000 Tf = 70 deg C
d = 70 mm
Tf = 75 deg C
different mass flow rates of 0.05 kg s1, 0.035 kg s1 and
k = 0.4 W/m K 0.015 kg s1 were considered. The other parameters considered
1000 Tf = 80 deg C
were the HTF inlet temperature of 70 °C, ball size of 70 mm,
0 and effective thermal conductivity of 0.4 W m1 K1. The surface
0 75 150 225 300 375 450 525 600 675 750
heat transfer coefficient calculated for the above mass flow rates
Time, min
are 43.1, 37.2 and 28.9 W m2 K1 respectively. It is seen from
(c) Fig. 4a that the time required for the complete charging at the
flow rates of 0.05 kg s1, 0.035 kg s1 and 0.015 kg s1 are 265,
Fig. 3. Effect of inlet HTF temperature on (a) charging time (b) instantaneous heat 325 and 605 min respectively. Therefore the charging time is high
stored (c) cumulative heat stored. at a lower mass flow rate of the HTF. This is due to the lower sur-
face heat transfer coefficient on the outer surface of the spherical
capsules at low mass flow rates. Further, it is observed from the
4.2. Effect of inlet HTF temperature figure, that the increase in time required for complete charging
along the bed height is appreciable at a low mass flow rate of
Fig. 3 shows the effect of the variation of the HTF temperature at 0.015 kg s1 when compared to that of higher mass flow rate of
the inlet on the performance of the storage tank during the charg- 0.05 kg s1. This is due to the higher drop in the temperature of
ing process. For this analysis, four different values of inlet temper- the HTF along the flow direction, at a lower mass flow rate, due
ature (Tf_inlet) of HTF 67, 70, 75 and 80 °C were selected. These to its low heat capacity.
temperatures are selected to study the performance of the packed Fig. 4b shows the variation of the instantaneous heat transfer
bed at various possible values of inlet HTF temperatures above the w.r.t time for different mass flow rates of the HTF. At a higher
phase change temperature of the PCM inside the packed bed, for a mass flow rate of 0.05 kg/s, initially, the surface heat flux is nearly
low temperature solar heating applications. The other parameters 2 kW, and it decreases rapidly to 0.8 kW within a duration of
such as the HTF flow rate of 0.035 kg s1, ball size of 70 mm and 30 min. Further, a linear variation with a higher slope is seen till
effective thermal conductivity of 0.4 W m1 K1 were kept the end of the charging process. On the other hand, for a lower
S. Karthikeyan et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 78 (2014) 74–80 79
k = 0.4 W/m K tem is its low thermal conductivity, which offers greater resistance
to the rate of heat storing/retrieval. To overcome this, several tech-
niques for the enhancement of the thermal conductivity of the
PCM, such as providing internal fins and carbon fibers inside the
PCM containers, or mixing of high thermal conductivity nanoparti-
cles with the PCM in suspension are studied by the researchers. In
m = 0.05 kg/s order to study the performance of the packed bed latent heat stor-
m = 0.035 kg/s age system at different enhanced thermal conductivity of PCM, the
m = 0.015 kg/s
following values of 0.4, 1.0 and 2.0 W m1 K1 are considered in
2.5 Tf = 70 oC
300
d = 70 mm
Tf = 70oC
m = 0.05 kg/s m = 0.035 kg/s
d = 70 mm 250
2 k = 0.4 W/m K m = 0.035 kg/s
m = 0.015 kg/s 200
1.5
150 k = 0.4 W/m K
k=1.0 W/m K
1 100 k=2.0 W/m K
50
0.5
0
0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
0
Bed height, x/L
0 100 200 300 400 500 600
Time, min (a)
(b)
Instantaneous heat stored, kW
Tf = 70 oC k=0.4 W/m K
6000 d = 70 mm
k=1.0 W/m K
m = 0.035 kg/s
5000 k=2.0 W/m K
Cumulative heat stored, kJ
4000
3000
2000
Tf = 70 oC m = 0.05 kg/s
1000
d = 70 mm m = 0.035 kg/s
k = 0.4 W/m K m = 0.015 kg/s
Time, min
0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 (b)
Time, min
(c) 7000
Tf = 70 oC
6000
Cumulative heat stored, kJ
d = 70 mm
Fig. 4. Effect of the mass flow rate of the HTF (a) charging time (b) instantaneous
m = 0.035 kg/s
heat stored (c) cumulative heat stored. 5000
4000
3000
mass flow rate of 0.015 kg/s, though initially a low heat transfer k=0.4 W/m K
rate of around 0.5 kW is observed, the variation in the heat trans- 2000 k=1.0 W/m K
fer rate w.r.t time is very low and an average of 0.25 kW ± 0.05 is k=2.0 W/m K
1000
observed during most of the charging process. Hence, the system
with a lower mass flow rate is very useful for applications where 0
a uniform heat transfer rate is required. Fig. 4c shows that the to- 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400
tal heat stored remains the same for all flow rates as the quantity Time, min
of the PCM is the same at all flow rates. However, the rate at
which the energy is accumulated in the storage tank is different
(c)
for different mass flow rates, similar to the effect observed for
Fig. 5. Effect of the thermal conductivity of the PCM (a) charging time (b)
the variation in the HTF inlet temperature. instantaneous heat stored (c) cumulative heat stored.
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