FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS OF PHASE-CHANGE STORAGE MEDIA

摘要

The objective of this study is to predict the cooling curve for the storage tank of a clathrate (crystalline compounds made of gaseous refrigerant and water) thermal energy storage system using finite element analysis. The analysis involve modeling of a storage medium which changes its phase from liquid to solid within the storage tank. The solidification of the storage medium takes place during the storage tank's heat extraction simulation process (charging process). The storage media in this study are Refrigerant 134a (R134a) clathrate and Refrigerant 12 (R12) clathrate. The enthalpy based standard approach is utilized to overcome the phase change discontinuities. The governing equations count for the phase change, two dimensional conduction, and convection modes. The cooling of the storage medium is simulated as energy loss from the storage tank contents. A set of algebraic discretized equations are obtained from the governing equations through the method of finite element formulation. These algebraic equations are solved using the common purpose computational fluid dynamics analysis package (FIDAP, 1991) to obtain the temperature distribution and consequently the cooling curve for the storage tank. The results for R12 clathrate are in good agreement with the experimental results obtained by Najafi and Schaetzle (1991). For R134a clathrate the results obtained follow a pattern similar to those of experimental work on R12 clathrate. The work of this study provides the necessary background for conducting experimental studies on R134a clathrate thermal energy storage system.