Thermal energy storage systems (TES), using phase change material (PCM) in building walls, consists a hot topic within the research community currently. In the present work, a numerical model is developed to simulate free cooling of air-PCM heat exchanger in both charging and discharging steps. The studied case is taken from experimental work. The domain consists in two parallel plates made of Paraffin as PCM, separate by a gap where air circulates. The flow and temperature can be adjusted. The goal is to calculate the temperature of the air at the outlet, in order to analyse the performance of the device. A good agreement was founded between experimental and numerical results. The analysis of the influence of the flow rate on the efficiency of the process confirms a previous works, that the heating flow rate should be higher than cooling one.
展开▼