Energy Conversion and Management 78 (2014) 74–80

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Energy Conversion and Management

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/enconman

Parametric studies on packed bed storage unit filled with PCM

encapsulated spherical containers for low temperature solar
air heating applications
S. Karthikeyan a, G. Ravikumar Solomon b, V. Kumaresan c, R. Velraj c,⇑
a
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indira Institute of Engineering and Technology, Thiruvallur 631203, India
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Hindustan University, Padur, Chennai 603103, India
c
Department of Mechanical Engineering, CEG Campus, Anna University, Chennai 600025, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

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.

1. Introduction Many researchers have investigated experimentally and theo-

Renewable energy, particularly the solar energy, is gaining more
importance worldwide for its clean, non-polluting, inexhaustible
and cost free nature. However, harnessing of the solar energy
and its efficient usage need an integration of suitable thermal en-
ergy storage (TES) unit with a solar thermal system. Thermal en-
ergy storage can be achieved in the form of sensible heat of
liquid or solid (water, oil or pebbles [1]) or latent heat of phase
change materials (inorganic salts, organic substances like paraffins
and fatty acids [2]). Latent heat thermal energy storage units are
particularly attractive due to its high energy storage density and
its isothermal behavior during the heat storing and retrieving pro-
cess. Such systems are utilized effectively for energy management
in buildings and waste heat recovery applications. However, the
integration of thermal storage for air heating applications such as
solar dryers and space heating have received the attention of
researchers only in recent years, as the thermal energy storage sys-
tems are gaining economic importance. In such applications, the
packed bed storage configurations are advantageous due to its sim-
plicity in construction and efficient heat transfer during the
charging and discharging process.
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 44 2235 8051.
E-mail address: velrajr@gmail.com (R. Velraj).
retically the transient behavior of the PCM encapsulated in differ-
ent geometries and PCM based storage systems in different
configurations particularly shell and tube, packed bed with capsule
of different geometries. Farid et al. [2] presented a detailed review
on PCM materials, encapsulation and various applications of phase
change energy storage systems. Verma et al. [3] reviewed the
mathematical modeling of the latent heat storage system using
PCM, by differentiating the models based on Ist and IInd law of
thermodynamics. Agyenim et al. [4] presented a detailed review
on PCM materials investigated for last three decades, heat transfer,
enhancement techniques and phase change formulation for latent
heat thermal energy storage system.
Costa et al. [5] designed an LHS system to utilize the advantage
of off-peak electrical energy for space heating. One and two dimen-
sional simulation model was solved in fully implicit finite differ-
ence scheme. In the melt region, the natural convection effect
was included by employing effective thermal conductivity using
k
the relation, keff ¼ Nu. Ismail and Henriquez [6] presented a numer-
l
ical study of the solidification of PCM encapsulated in a spherical
capsule. A Pure conduction model with convective boundary con-
ditions on the external surface of the sphere was used. Wei et al.
[7] analyzed numerically and experimentally the PCM heat storage
system, by employing the PCM encapsulated in four different cap-
sule geometries and concluded that the heat release performance

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
Nomenclature
ap surface area of the PCM sphere, m2
Ac cross sectional area of the storage tank, m2
c specific heat, kJ kg1 K1
dp diameter of the PCM spherical ball, m
G mass velocity, kg m2 s1
hs heat transfer coefficient between HTF and PCM,
kW m2 K1
H enthalpy, kJ kg1
k thermal conductivity of the HTF, kW m1 K1
L height of the storage tank, m
t time, s
T temperature, °C
vmax HTF velocity along the bed void fraction, (=mf/qfAce),
m s1
x axial direction of the storage tank, m
r radius of the PCM ball, m
decreased in the order of the sphere, cylinder, plate and tube. Bilir
and Ilken [8] investigated the inward solidification problem of a
PCM encapsulated in a cylindrical and spherical container. The en-
thalpy based control volume technique with the third kind of
boundary conditions were used to formulate and solve the govern-
ing dimensionless equations. Assis et al. [9] experimentally studied
the melting of the PCM in a spherical shell which includes the visu-
alization of the process, and compared it with the transient numer-
ical solution performed using Fluent 6.0 software.
Saitoh and Hirose [10] have reported the results of theoretical
and experimental investigation on the transient thermal perfor-
mance of a TES unit based on the capsule diameter, the flow rate
of HTF, the type of PCMs, the capsule material and the difference
between the inlet HTF temperature and melting temperature of
the PCM. Chen and Yue [11] developed a one dimensional lump
model to determine the thermal characteristics of a cool thermal
storage system using water/ice as the PCM. Later, they developed
a one dimensional porous medium model [12] that showed good
agreement with the experiments compared to their earlier work.
Watanabe et al. [13] developed and studied a heat storage system
that consisted of horizontal cylindrical capsules filled with three
types of PCM with different melting temperature. Their results
proved that the charging and discharging rate were improved by
the use of multiple PCM. Cho and Choi [14] experimentally inves-
tigated the thermal characteristics of paraffin in a spherical capsule
packed inside a storage tank at different values of the Reynolds
number and inlet temperatures. Benmansour et al. [15] carried
out a two dimensional numerical and experimental analysis, to
understand the transient axial and radial thermal dispersion on a
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-
ture range, the size of the PCM capsule, inlet heat transfer fluid
temperature and fluid flow rate on the performance of the packed
bed latent heat storage system, consisting of spherical capsules for
solar water heating applications. The solid–solid phase change that
occurs before the onset of the actual melting phase change was
also considered in the numerical solution. Cheralathan et al. [17]
performed a numerical analysis and parametric studies on a PCM
encapsulated cool thermal energy storage unit integrated with a
refrigeration system. They have used the porous medium model
with three different time domains as suggested by Chen and Yue
[12]. Nallusamy et al. [18] have also investigated the performance
of the similar storage unit for solar water heating applications
75
e void fraction
l dynamic viscosity, kg m1 s1
q density, kg m3
Subscripts
f HTF
p PCM
ini initial
Abbreviation
PCM phase change material
HTF heat transfer fluid
TES thermal energy storage
LHS latent heat storage
SHS sensible heat storage
DSC differential scanning calorimetry
using the same mathematical model. However, their model also
accommodates the effect of varying inlet temperature to the stor-
age tank to simulate the hot water coming from the solar collector.
Karthikeyan and Velraj [19] made a comparative study of three dif-
ferent mathematical models for the packed bed latent heat storage
system, comprised of a cylindrical storage tank filled with paraffin
encapsulated spherical containers. They reported the validity of
the models for air and water as the heat transfer fluids, at different
mass flow rates and ball sizes.
The major focus of this paper is to perform the parametric stud-
ies on a packed bed storage unit filled with paraffin encapsulated
inside the spherical containers suitable for low temperature air
heating applications using the enthalpy based numerical model.
The developed mathematical model and the numerical code writ-
ten using ‘C’ language were used to solve the equations. The valida-
tion of numerical results using the experimental data for the
similar configuration was reported by Karthikeyan and Velraj
[19]. The influence of various parameters such as mass flow rate
of the HTF, temperature of the HTF maintained at inlet to the stor-
age tank, ball size of the PCM capsule and effective thermal con-
ductivity of the PCM was analyzed based on the charging time,
instantaneous heat stored and cumulative heat stored during the
charging process of the storage unit.
2. Mathematical model
The physical problem considered in the present investigation is
described and the corresponding mathematical formulation of the
problem is given in this section.
2.1. Statement of the problem
Fig. 1 shows the physical representation of the packed bed con-
sidered for the analysis. An insulated cylindrical tank of the se-
lected aspect ratio (L/D) is randomly packed with ‘n’ numbers of
PCM encapsulated HDPE spherical balls. The HTF that enters from
the bottom flows through the porous spacing of the packed bed
and exits at the top of the tank. The HTF is air, and the PCM is com-
mercial grade paraffin. The phase change temperature and latent
heat of fusion obtained from the DSC analysis reported by
Karthikeyan and Velraj [19] and the other thermo physical proper-
ties provided by the manufacturer are used in the numerical
simulation. Table 1 lists the thermo physical properties of the
76 S. Karthikeyan et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 78 (2014) 74–80

2.2. Governing equations

x
The HTF and PCM are two different domains and hence, a sep-
arate equation for each region is considered. For the PCM, the con-
duction dominated enthalpy based model which considers thermal
gradient inside the PCM is accounted. The energy equations for the
HTF and PCM capsules are shown in the following equations:
HTF:
 
@T f @T f @2T f
eqf Ac Lcf þ v max ¼ kf þ hs ap ðT pjr¼r0  T f Þ ð1Þ
@t @x @x2
PCM:

@Hp @2T p 2 @T p
qp ¼ kp þ  kp ð2Þ
x @t @r 2 r @r

Initial conditions are;

At time t = 0,
Fig. 1. Physical arrangement of the packed bed model.
Tf ¼ Tf ini for 0 6 x 6 L

Table 1 Tp ¼ Tp ini for 0 6 x 6 L

Thermo physical properties of the paraffin wax.

Solid Liquid Tp ¼ Tp ini for 0 6 r 6 r0 and 0 6 x 6 L

3
Density (kg m ) 670 640
Thermal conductivity (W m1 K1) 0.4 0.2
Specific heat (kJ kg1 K1) 2.4 1.8
Phase change properties
Solid–Solid phase change (°C) 46.5–55.5
Solid–liquid phase change (°C) 55.5–66.5
Latent heat of fusion from solid to solid (kJ kg1) 38
Latent heat of fusion from solid to solid (kJ kg1) 142.7
PCM considered for the analysis. During the charging process (or
melting of the PCM), the HTF temperature at the inlet is main-
tained constant above the phase change temperature of the PCM.
During the above processes, the PCM experiences three different
regimes, such as, sensible heating below phase change tempera-
ture, phase change process, and sensible heating above phase
change temperature. The maximum velocity (vmax) used in the
model is calculated from the HTF flow rate across the spherical
capsules considering the void fraction.
The following assumptions are made in the formulation of the
mathematical models:
(i) The HTF and PCM are two different domains and hence, sep-
arate equations for each region are considered.
(ii) The thermo physical properties of the PCM are different for
the solid and liquid phases and the variation of properties
with respect to temperature during the phase change is con-
sidered linear.
(iii) The temperature of the HTF at the inlet to the storage tank is
considered to be constant during the entire charging
process.
(iv) Initially, the temperatures of the HTF and PCM in the storage
tank are considered to be uniform.
(v) The resistance offered by the thin wall of the spherical cap-
sule and the radiant heat transfer are negligible.
(vi) The tank is perfectly insulated, and hence, there is no heat
loss from the tank surface to the surroundings.
(vii) Enthalpy based formulation is employed for the energy
equation of PCM to accommodate the phase change over a
range of temperature.
The governing equation for the HTF and the PCM are given in
the following section.
Boundary conditions are;
At time t > 0,
Tf ¼ Tf inlet at x ¼ 0
@T f
¼ 0 at x ¼ L
@x
At the PCM wall – HTF interface (i.e. at r = r0 and all values of ‘x’)
@T p
kp ¼ hs ðT pjr¼r0  T f Þ
@r
The convective heat transfer coefficient between the HTF and
PCM capsules is determined by using the correlation proposed by
Perry and Green [20]as given in the following equation:
!0:365
hdp dp G
Nu ¼ ¼ 3:6 ð3Þ
kf lf e
The validation of the model with the experimental results as
well as the methodology adopted to predict the transient behavior
of the packed bed storage system using the above model were re-
ported in detail by Karthikeyan and Velraj [19].
3. Selection of parameters
It is observed from the formulation of the numerical model used
in the present study, for the packed bed TES system filled with
spherical encapsulated PCM containers, that the performance of
the system depends greatly on key parameters, such as the mass
flow rate of the HTF, temperature of the HTF maintained at the in-
let to the storage tank, ball size of the PCM capsule, and effective
thermal conductivity of the PCM substance. Certain practically
possible range of values of HTF temperature and mass flow rate
suitable for the spices drying using solar air heaters are considered
for the analysis, without changing the PCM-HTF combination.
Packed bed latent heat storage systems are commercially em-
ployed in large scale central air conditioning systems with thermal
storage. In those applications the diameter of the balls used were
in the range of 80–100 mm. Considering the high pumping power
involved in the small sized balls and the high internal thermal
 S. Karthikeyan et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 78 (2014) 74–80 77

Table 2
Parameters considered and their range of values.

Parameters Values

Charging Time, min

PCM ball size (mm) 60, 70, 80, 100
HTF inlet fluid temperature (°C) 67, 70, 75, 80
Mass flow rate of HTF (kg s1) 0.05, 0.035, 0.015
Effective thermal conductivity of PCM (W m1 K1) 0.4, 1.0, 2.0

resistance in the very large sized balls, the sizes of 60–100 mm

were selected for parametric analysis, which provide the porosity
of around 0.4. Recently, various heat transfer enhancement meth-
ods such as introduction of fins, metal matrix, and the dispersion of
nanoparticles are employed to enhance the thermal conductivity of
the PCM. Hence in the parametric analysis for the selected PCM, Bed height, x/L
without changing the other properties the possible range of effec- (a)
tive thermal conductivity (k) values were also studied. Table 2 lists
the range of values of the various operating parameters used in the 1.6
present study. The charging time, instantaneous heat stored, and m = 0.035 kg/s d = 60 mm
1.4

Instantaneous heat stored, kW

the cumulative heat stored are presented for the variation in the Tf = 70 oC d = 70 mm
range of parameters considered in the analysis. 1.2 k = 0.4 W/m K d = 80 mm
d = 100 mm
1
4. Results and discussions 0.8

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

600 constant. It is seen from Fig. 3a that the increase in temperature

m = 0.035 kg/s of the HTF at the inlet from 67 to 80 °C increases the potential dif-
500 d = 70 mm ference between the HTF and the PCM, and this reduces the charg-
k = 0.4 W/m K
ing time from 565 to 200 min. The difference in charging time
Charging Time, min

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

m = 0.035 kg/s Tf = 67 deg C

d = 70 mm Tf = 70 deg C of 200 min whereas for the inlet HTF temperature of 67 °C, the
k = 0.4 W/m K Tf = 75 deg C variation is faster from the initial value of 1.25 kW to 0.4 kW in
Tf = 80 deg C a span of 55 min and then to 0 kW at a slower rate in a span of
around 500 min. Hence, it is possible to achieve the required heat
transfer rate by increasing the temperature difference. The higher
temperature difference results in an appreciable drop in instanta-
neous heat transfer, with respect to time during the charging pro-
cess. However, the limited temperature difference between the
source and supply in many of the practical applications restricts
the higher temperature difference between the HTF and PCM dur-
ing the charging and discharging processes. Fig. 3c shows the var-
Time, min iation of the cumulative heat stored with respect to time for the
same simulation trials. It is seen from the figure, that the total
(b) heat stored remains at a constant value of approximately
6000 kJ as the amount of PCM in the packed bed is same for all
7000 trials; however, the rate at which the energy accumulated in
6000
the storage tank is different, when the inlet HTF temperature
Cumulative heat stored, kJ

varies.
5000
4.3. Effect of the mass flow rate of HTF
4000

3000
2000
1000
0 and effective thermal conductivity of 0.4 W m1 K1. The surface
0 75
Fig. 3. Effect of inlet HTF temperature on (a) charging time (b) instantaneous heat
stored (c) cumulative heat stored.
4.2. Effect of inlet HTF temperature
Fig. 3 shows the effect of the variation of the HTF temperature at
the inlet on the performance of the storage tank during the charg-
ing process. For this analysis, four different values of inlet temper-
ature (Tf_inlet) of HTF 67, 70, 75 and 80 °C were selected. These
temperatures are selected to study the performance of the packed
bed at various possible values of inlet HTF temperatures above the
phase change temperature of the PCM inside the packed bed, for a
low temperature solar heating applications. The other parameters
such as the HTF flow rate of 0.035 kg s1, ball size of 70 mm and
effective thermal conductivity of 0.4 W m1 K1 were kept
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
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
Tf = 80 deg C
were the HTF inlet temperature of 70 °C, ball size of 70 mm,
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,
325 and 605 min respectively. Therefore the charging time is high
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
figure, that the increase in time required for complete charging
along the bed height is appreciable at a low mass flow rate of
0.015 kg s1 when compared to that of higher mass flow rate of
0.05 kg s1. This is due to the higher drop in the temperature of
the HTF along the flow direction, at a lower mass flow rate, due
to its low heat capacity.
Fig. 4b shows the variation of the instantaneous heat transfer
w.r.t time for different mass flow rates of the HTF. At a higher
mass flow rate of 0.05 kg/s, initially, the surface heat flux is nearly
2 kW, and it decreases rapidly to 0.8 kW within a duration of
30 min. Further, a linear variation with a higher slope is seen till
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

4.4. Effect of the enhancement of thermal conductivity of PCM

Tf = 70 oC
d = 70 mm The major drawback in the PCM based latent heat storage sys-
Charging Time, min

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

Bed height, x/L

(a) 350

2.5 Tf = 70 oC
300
d = 70 mm
Tf = 70oC
m = 0.05 kg/s m = 0.035 kg/s

Charging Time, min

Instantaneous heat stored, kW

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.
80 S. Karthikeyan et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 78 (2014) 74–80
this analysis. Fig. 5 is drawn for the variation in the thermal con-
ductivity of the PCM and maintaining the HTF inlet temperature,
ball size and flow rate at the constant values of 70 °C, 70 mm
and 0.035 kg s1 respectively.
It is seen from Fig. 5a, that the duration of charging time is 325,
315 and 295 min corresponding to the PCM thermal conductivity
of 0.4, 1.0 and 2.0 W m1 K1. It is seen that there is only a mar-
ginal variation in the charging time for all the selected values of
thermal conductivity. Similarly, Fig. 5b and c shows a negligible
variation in the instantaneous heat stored, and the cumulative heat
stored, with respect to time for all values of thermal conductivity.
There are lot of research works reported in the literature [21–25] to
study the heat transfer enhancement in the latent heat storage sys-
tem using various attempts like introduction of fins inside the PCM
container, dispersion of high thermal conductivity particles and
nanoparticles, insertion of metal matrix and composites. In all
the studies, mostly the HTF are liquids (water, ethylene glycol).
Though the poor thermal conductivity of the PCM has been re-
ported in several literatures as the major drawback of the latent
heat storage system, the present investigation with air as the
HTF reveals, that thermal conductivity has a negligible effect on
the performance of the storage system because of the major role
played by the high surface convective resistance provided by the
air which was considered as the HTF in the analysis. Hence, it is
construed from the above results that the factors, like the surface
convective heat transfer coefficient, temperature difference be-
tween the HTF and the PCM, and the heat transfer surface area in
the packed bed, have a major influence on the charging perfor-
mance compared to the thermal conductivity of the PCM.
6. Conclusions
It is concluded from the present investigation that the three
parameters of increasing the heat transfer surface area with small
sized balls, higher temperature difference between the HTF inlet
and the phase change temperature of the PCM, and increasing
the mass flow rate of the HTF, are advantageous factors during
the charging process. However, increasing the temperature differ-
ence between the HTF inlet and the phase change temperature of
the PCM has significant effect on the charging time compared to
the effect due to increasing the mass flow rate of the HTF/ decreas-
ing the size of the PCM balls. Further, the effect of increasing the
thermal conductivity beyond 1 W m1 K1 for the PCM used in this
analysis will not produce considerable heat transfer enhancement
because of the major role played by the high surface convective
resistance provided by the Air (HTF).
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