Energy Conversion and Management 47 (2006) 944966

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An experimental study on heat transfer characteristics of heat pipe heat exchanger with latent heat storage. Part I: Charging only and discharging only modes
Zhongliang Liu *, Zengyi Wang, Chongfang Ma
Key Laboratory of Enhanced Heat Transfer and Energy Conservation, Ministry of Education and Key Laboratory of Heat Transfer and Energy Conversion, Beijing Education Commission, College of Environmental and Energy Engineering, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100022, PR China Received 23 October 2004; received in revised form 23 May 2005; accepted 10 June 2005 Available online 27 July 2005

Abstract A new thermal storage system, a heat pipe heat exchanger with latent heat storage, is reported. The new system may operate in three basic dierent operation modes, the charging only, the discharging only and the simultaneous charging/discharging modes, which makes the system suitable for various time and/or weather dependent energy systems. In this part of the paper, the basic structure, the working principle and the design concept are briey introduced. Extensive experimental results are presented of the charging only and discharging only operations, and the eects of the inlet temperature and the ow rate of the cold/ hot water were also investigated. The results show that the heat exchanger performs the designed functions very well and can both store and release the thermal energy eciently. 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Latent heat storage; Heat pipe; Heat exchanger; Heat transfer; Experimental

Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 10 67391917/67392566; fax: +86 10 67391983. E-mail address: liuzhl@bjut.edu.cn (Z. Liu).

0196-8904/$ - see front matter 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.enconman.2005.06.004

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Nomenclature f accumulated or extracted heat fraction fs relative phase change rate, s1 mc mass ow rate of cold water, kg/min mass ow rate of hot water, kg/min mh Q heat supplied, recovered, stored or lost, MJ r radial coordinate from heat pipe axis line, mm t time, min T temperature, C inlet temperature of cold water, C Tc inlet temperature of hot water, C Th TPCM,0 initial temperature of phase change material (PCM), C z vertical coordinate from upper separation plate of the phase change material chamber, mm

1. Introduction A proper energy storage unit cannot only improve the total eciency of the energy conversion and utilization system but also help to balance or regulate the mismatch between energy supply and energy demands in quantity, location and time. For example, the availability of solar energy depends largely on time, weather condition and latitude, the electricity demands vary with time. Therefore, the energy originally from solar energy and o peak electricity needs to be stored. There are many thermal energy storage (TES) methods [1] such as sensible TES, latent TES, chemical TES and, more recently, ionic liquid TES [2]. Latent TES is receiving more and more attention because of its large energy storage density and the signicant reduction in storage volume and, most importantly, the isothermal behavior during the charging and discharging process compared with sensible heat storage systems. Hence, latent thermal energy storage is widely used in the conversion and utilization of solar and other renewable energies, various heat recovery systems, o peak electricity storage, air conditioning and heat pump systems. Because of the importance of thermal energy storage in energy systems, various latent thermal energy storage devices have been developed. Shamsundar and Srinivasan [3] gave a description of a heat exchanger with latent thermal energy storage that uses an array of cylindrical tubes as the uid passage and outside of the tubes is the phase change material (PCM). A numerical analysis was performed of the unit by using a two dimensional formulation. Banaszek et al. [4] designed a spiral thermal energy storage unit and investigated its phase change characteristics. Later [5] they gave a numerical simulation of the unit and compared with their experimental results. Brousseau and Lacroix [6] proposed a multi-layer latent thermal energy storage system that could be used for smoothing daily load proles. The unit consisted of narrow vertical parallel plates of PCM separated by rectangular ow passages. In order to enhance the heat transfer process between the PCM and the working uid, various capsules packed bed latent heat storage systems have also quez [7] designed a latent thermal energy storage system that been proposed. Ismail and Henr

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consisted of spherical capsules lled with PCM placed inside a cylindrical tank tted with a working uid circulation system to charge and discharge the storage tank. Guo et al. [8] investigated a latent heat storage system in which the cool storage tank is lled with rectangular enclosures containing PCM. There are still many other types of thermal energy storage units in the literature. However, as we can see, all these latent thermal energy storage devices use the wall of the heat transfer uid passage as the heat transfer surface of the PCM. This means the heat transfer area on the PCM side is completely determined by the heat transfer area on the working uid side, although these two heat transfer areas may not be equal. However, as we know, most PCMs are poor heat conduction media, and therefore, the dominant thermal resistances in the heat transfer process between the PCM and the working uid is on the PCM side. Therefore, according to heat transfer theory, the most ecient way for improving the heat transfer process is to enhance the heat transfer on the PCM side. Various methods for PCM thermal conductivity enhancement have been proposed and studied by many researchers. Some of the most common methods are attaching ns to heat transfer walls, dispersing metal particles or rings or carbon bers of high conductivity into PCMs, etc. [913]. However, the most direct and also the most ecient way is to increase the heat transfer area on the PCM side. This is usually impossible or results in a large increase in the pressure drop of the working uid and a large decrease in the eective PCM storage volume for conventional latent thermal energy storage systems due to the increased length of the ow passages of the working uid. This diculty may be removed by introducing heat pipes into the thermal energy storage unit. Horbaniuc et al. [14] presented the idea of a heat pipe heat exchanger with latent thermal storage and provided a theoretical analysis of the unit to study the inuence of the number of longitudinal ns attached to the heat pipe on the total solidication time of the PCM. However, no experimental data were provided. Lu et al [15] proposed a similar device for wind power heating systems as early as in 1992, although sensible heat thermal storage material was used. A heat pipe heat exchanger with latent heat thermal storage has many advantages over the above mentioned conventional devices. Because the heat transfer areas on the hot uid side, the cold uid side and the PCM side can be designed independently, the PCM side heat transfer area can be set at any desired value, at least theoretically. This is one of the most important features of the heat pipe heat exchanger with latent heat thermal energy storage. In this paper, a new heat pipe exchanger with latent heat thermal energy storage was designed and manufactured. The performance of the unit under various possible operation modes was investigated experimentally.

2. The heat pipe heat exchanger with latent heat thermal energy storage Fig. 1 presents the systematic conguration of a heat pipe heat exchanger with latent heat thermal storage. The heat exchanger consists mainly of four parts. The hot uid ow passage (6), the PCM chamber (7) and the cold uid ow passage (5) are connected by a number of heat pipes (3). The phase change material (8) is stored in the PCM chamber. In order to enhance the heat transfer process, annular ns made of pure copper are attached to the heat pipes. As one can see from the gure, the sizes of the hot uid ow passage, the PCM chamber and the cold uid passage can be

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Fig. 1. A heat pipe heat exchanger with latent heat thermal storage: The systematic conguration (1) Hot uid in; (1 0 ) hot uid out; (2) cold uid in; (2 0 ) cold uid out; (3) heat pipes; (4) annular ns; (5) cold uid ow passage; (6) hot uid ow passage; (7) PCM chamber; (8) PCM; (9) upper separation and (10) Lower separation.

designed independently, which presents one of the major advantages over other latent heat thermal storage systems. As Horbaniuc et al. [14] has already pointed out, this unique thermal energy storage system has three dierent operation modes. The charging only mode is where the hot uid ows through the hot uid ow passage, the heat is transferred through the heat pipes to the PCM to melt the PCM and the energy is stored in the PCM as the latent and/or sensible heat. Under this operation mode, the evaporation section of the heat pipes is the part in the hot uid ow passage, and the condensation section is the part in the PCM chamber. The discharging only mode is where the cold uid ows through the cold uid ow passage and receives the heat that is extracted from the PCM by the heat pipes. Under this operation mode, the evaporation section of the heat pipes is the part in the PCM chamber, and the condensation section is the part in the cold uid ow passage. The simultaneous charging and discharging mode is where both the hot and cold uids ow through their corresponding ow passages. There are two possible sub-operation modes under this mode: Fluid to uid heat transfer with discharging heat from the PCM is when both the hot uid and the PCM release heat to the cold uid. Under this mode, both parts of the heat pipes, that in the hot uid ow passage and that in the PCM chamber, may play the role of the evaporator of the heat pipes, and the part of the heat pipes in the cold uid ow passage is the condenser. Fluid to uid heat transfer with charging heat to the PCM is when the hot uid releases heat to both the cold uid and the PCM. Under this mode, both parts of the heat pipes, that in the cold uid ow passage and that in the PCM chamber, act as the heat pipe condenser, and the part of the heat pipes in the hot uid ow passage is the heat pipe evaporator. In addition, there is still another possible operation mode theoretically in which the state of the PCM is unchanged, and the heat released from the hot uid is all transferred to the cold uid

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Table 1 Main parameters of the heat pipes Type of heat pipe Manufacturer Pipe and n material Pipe internal diameter Pipe wall thickness Working uid Working temperature Wicking material Pipe length Type of ns Fin thickness Fin length Fin pitch Gravity driven Nanjing Shengnuo Heat Pipes Ltd. Copper 24 mm 2.0 mm Acetone, 129 g 0100 C 950 mm Circumferential 0.4 mm 27 mm/14 mm 5 mm

through the heat pipes. As it has been noted by Horbaniuc et al. [14], the simultaneous charging and discharging operation mode presents another major advantage of the unit and gives a very exible operation to adapt to uctuations in the energy supply and consumption. Therefore, the unit is most suitable for solar energy and other time dependent energy systems. In order to study the performance of this kind of heat pipe exchangers and its feasibility, we designed and manufactured a prototype of the heat exchanger. The heat exchanger is of dimensions of 1000 500 120 mm. Five gravity heat pipes run through the hot uid ow passage, the PCM chamber and the cold uid ow passage. The heat pipes are 28 mm in external diameter and 950 mm in length and are made of pure copper. The working uid of the heat pipes is acetone. Because of the variable evaporator size that is needed for realizing the functions of the heat exchanger, the amount of working uid is much bigger than that in conventional heat pipes. In order to enhance the heat transfer processes, circumferential copper ns 27 mm long and 0.4 mm thick are used for the PCM chamber, and the same ns with a length of 14 mm are used for the hot and cold passages. The n pitch is 5 mm. Table 1 lists the detailed parameters of the heat pipes. Fig. 2 depicts the dimensions of the heat exchanger and the locations of the thermocouples in the PCM. More detailed structure and design methods are available in Refs. [16] and [17]. The PCM used is an industrial paran wax (52#). The melting point is 52.1 C, and the latent heat is 132.4 kJ/kg by dierential scanning calorimeter (DSC) analysis. The quantity of PCM used in the heat exchanger is 25.1 kg, and thus, the estimated energy storage in the form of latent heat is about 3300 kJ.

3. Experimental setup and procedure In order to evaluate the performance of our heat pipe heat exchanger with latent heat storage, an experimental system was set up, as shown in Fig. 3. The system consists of the heat pipe heat exchanger (2), a low temperature bath (1 0 ) that can provide water of a temperature as low as 5 C, a high temperature bath (1) that can provide water of a temperature as high as 95 C, a HP 34970A data logger (3), two LZB-15 ow meters (5), a personal computer (4), two circulation

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140 140
TC1 TC2 TC3 TC4 TC5

140
TC6 TC7 TC 8 TC 9 TC10

140 730
TC11 TC12 TC13 TC14 TC15

140
TC16 TC17 TC18 TC19 TC20

160
TC21 TC22 TC23 TC24 TC25

130

500

140 140

TC26 TC27 TC28

140
TC29 TC30 TC31

140 730
TC32 TC33 TC34

140
TC35 TC36 TC37

160
TC38 TC39TC40

130

120

Fig. 2. Dimensions of the heat pipe heat exchanger and the thermocouple distribution in the PCM. (a) The horizontal locations of the ve thermocouples at each vertical position are 14, 31, 41, 48 and 55 mm from the axis of the heat pipe, respectively and (b) the horizontal locations of the three thermocouples at each vertical position are 41, 48 and 55 mm from the axis of the heat pipe, respectively.

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Cold water loop 6 6 5 8

2 5 1 6 6 7

4 hot water loop 8

Fig. 3. Schematic diagram of the experimental system. (1) High temperature bath; (1 0 ) low temperature bath; (2) heat pipe heat exchanger with latent heat storage; (3) HP data logger; (4) personal computer; (5) ow meter; (6) valves; (7) thermocouples and (8) circulation pump.

pumps (8) and several valves (6) that are used for controlling the ow rate and direction. There are 48 T-type thermocouples (7) in total. To measure the water temperatures at the outlets and the inlets of the heat exchanger, 2 thermocouples are used at each outlet or inlet and are placed inside mixing cups. Forty thermocouples are used to measure the temperature distribution of the PCM. Their locations are given in Fig. 2. In Fig. 2(a), the horizontal locations of the ve thermocouples that are at the same vertical position are 14, 31, 41, 48 and 55 mm from the axis line of the heat pipe, the vertical locations are the same as that indicated in Fig. 2(b). The horizontal locations of the three thermocouples that are at the same vertical position in Fig. 2(b) are 41, 48 and 55 mm from the axis line of the heat pipe. All the thermocouples are carefully calibrated, and the estimated error of temperature is 0.1 C. In order to reduce the uncertainties in temperature dierence measurements and, thus, minimize the error in estimating the heat ow rate of the water ows, the temperature dierence of the water between the outlet and the inlet is measured directly by connecting the thermocouple at the outlet and the one at the inlet in series. The ow rate of circulation water is measured by LZB-15 ow meters with an accuracy of 2%. The uncertainty for heat ow deduction from the measured temperatures and ow rates are estimated to be smaller than 8.7%, among which the largest contribution is from the temperature dierence measurements of the hot and/or cold water. In order to reduce environmental inuences and heat losses, the heat exchanger and all the pipings in the experimental system are well insulated by applying a porous polythene insulator of a thickness of 80 mm. Prior to starting the charging, discharging or charging/discharging experiments of the heat exchanger, the PCM in the PCM chamber is heated or cooled by circulating the cold water or the hot water to the desired uniform temperature. After that, the charging only experiments were started by turning o the cold water loop (the cold water ow passage was also emptied) and turning on the hot water loop. The discharging only experiments were started by turning o the hot water loop (the hot water ow passage was also emptied) and turning on the cold water loop. The simultaneous charging and discharging experiments were realized by turning on both the hot and cold water loop. The experiments were performed with dierent inlet temperatures and dierent ow rates of the circulation water. In this part of the paper, only the experiments of the charging

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only and the discharging only operation modes are presented. The results for the simultaneous charging and discharging operation modes are reported in the second part of this paper. 4. Experimental results and discussions 4.1. Charging only operation performance 4.1.1. Performance of the heat pipes Although the heat pipes used in the unit have the same structure and working principles as conventional heat pipes, their operation modes are quite dierent from the conventional ones. They have much more working uid than the conventional heat pipes, and the evaporation and condensation areas are variable according to their applied working conditions. Therefore, it is of basic importance to make sure that these heat pipes do work and provide the functions for which they are designed. Our experiments show that the heat pipes used in our heat exchangers can function properly and eectively. Fig. 4 depicts the measured wall temperature variation of the heat pipe with time with a hot water ow rate of 3.33 kg/min and a hot water inlet temperature of 80 C, and Fig. 5 presents the heat pipe wall temperature distribution along the axial direction of the heat pipe at dierent times. From these two gures, we can see that during the early stage of the charging process of the heat exchanger, the heat transferred from the hot water to the heat pipe evaporator is mainly used to heat the walls of the heat pipes and, thus, to raise the temperature of the heat pipes, which explains the rapid raise of the heat pipe wall temperature during this period. However, as soon as the wall temperature is higher than the PCM temperature, some of the heat is transferred to heat the PCM that surrounds the heat pipe, and this part of the heat increases with the heat pipe wall temperature. Therefore, the wall temperature increase rate slows as the process continues. Actually, the wall temperature approaches a constant as soon as the preheating
75

65

55

T (C)

45

z
TC1, 140 mm TC6, 280 mm TC11, 420 mm TC16, 560 mm TC21, 720 mm

35

25 0 50 100 150 200

t (min)
Fig. 4. Heat pipe wall temperature variation with time at dierent vertical positions z = 140, 280, 420, 560 and 720 mm at 14 mm from the axis of the heat pipe. Charging only mode: TPCM,0 = 28.5 C, Th = 80 C, mh = 3.33 kg/min.

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80

70

60

T (C)
50 30 min 60 min 90 min 120 min 150 min 210 min 40 30 100

230

360

490

620

750

z (mm)
Fig. 5. Wall temperature prole along the heat pipe length at various times. Charging only mode: TPCM,0 = 28.5 C, Th = 80 C, mh = 3.33 kg/min.

period of the PCM (from its initial temperature of 28.5 C to its melting point) ends and melting starts. It should also be noted that during the whole process, the temperature dierence across the length of the heat pipe is very small, usually less than 1 C, which is the typical characteristic of heat pipes and proves its excellent temperature leveling ability and fast transient thermal response. 4.1.2. Melting curves and phase change interfaces Extensive experiments were performed to test the performance of the heat pipe exchanger for the charging only operation mode, and thus, many melting curves of the PCM were obtained. Fig. 6 is one group of the typical melting curves at dierent radial positions. During the initial period of heating, the PCM absorbs and stores the energy transferred by the heat pipe from the hot water in the form of sensible heat. This heat is used to raise the temperature of the PCM gradually to its melting point. As soon as TC6 (the wall temperature of the heat pipe) is equal to or higher than the melting point, the melting process starts. Before melting takes place, the heat transfer through the PCM is pure conduction, and the temperature increases almost linearly with time. Because of the low thermal conductivity of the PCM, the temperature near the heat pipe increases very quickly. However, after the temperature of the PCM reaches its melting point and the melting process starts, the temperature increase rate of the PCM is signicantly slowed. The heat absorbed by the phase change interface is equal to the energy stored as latent heat plus the heat transferred to its neighbor region. It is this mechanism that causes the dierent trends of temperature variations at the dierent locations. For instance, the temperature of the outermost thermocouple TC10 almost increases linearly with time during the whole process, which is quite dierent from TC6 that has an apparent constant temperature period. This is because TC10 is located at the symmetrical position of the two neighboring heat pipes, and we all know that a symmetrical surface in a symmetrical heat transfer system is also an adiabatic surface. Therefore, the heat transferred from the inner side to it is all stored and, thus, raises its temper-

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953

65

55

T (C)
45

r, mm
TC6, 14 TC7, 31 TC8, 41 TC9, 48 TC10, 55 0 30 60 90 120 150 180 210

35

25

t (min)
Fig. 6. PCM temperature versus time at the dierent radial positions r = 14, 31, 41, 48 and 55 mm from the axis of the heat pipe at z = 140 mm. Charging only mode: TPCM,0 = 28.4 C, Th = 80.1 C, mh = 2.50 kg/min.

ature. TC7 is the only thermocouple that is located in the region of the ns. From Fig. 6, one can see the temperature dierence between TC6 and TC7 is much smaller than the temperature dierence of the other thermocouples, for example, at 10 min, the temperature dierence between TC6 and TC7 is 0.8 C, that between TC7 and TC8 is 3.1 C, that between TC8 and TC9 is 3.8 C and that between TC9 and TC10 is 2.2 C; at 120 min, the corresponding temperature dierences are 0.3, 3.4, 5.9 and 4.2 C. This proves that the ns attached to the heat pipe enhanced the heat transfer process between the heat pipe and the PCM eectively. Fig. 7 shows the temperature distribution of the PCM at 90 min under the experimental conditions of a hot water inlet temperature of 80.1 C, a hot water ow rate of 2.5 kg/min and the

70 60

70 60

T (C)

50 40 10 25

T (C)
50 40 100 200 300 40 700 55 800 600 400 500 z (mm)

r (mm)

Fig. 7. Temperature distribution of the PCM at 90 min. Charging only mode: TPCM,0 = 28.4 C, Th = 80.1 C, mh = 2.50 kg/min.

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initial PCM temperature of 28.4 C. From this gure, we can nd that the temperature variation along the axial direction of the heat pipe is much smaller than that along the radial direction, which again proves that the heat pipe has a very good temperature leveling ability and a very small thermal resistance in the axial direction. It can also be seen from the gure that within the inuence region of the ns, the temperature prole is much more uniform than in the other region, both in the radial and the axial directions, the slopes of the temperature surface along the radial direction and the axial direction between r = 14 and 31 mm are much smaller than that of the other regions. This again proves that the ns are eective in enhancing the heat transfer process. Fig. 8 depicts the liquidsolid interfaces at various times. Using linear interpolation, the interface position is deduced from the temperature measurements on the assumption that the phase change takes place at a single melting temperature (52.1 C). The shape of these liquidsolid interfaces generally agrees with our common knowledge: the region that is near the hot water passage (the larger z region) melts faster than the region far away from the hot water passage (the smaller z region). It can also be seen from Fig. 8 that the distance in the radial direction between any two neighboring interfaces generally decreases with r. Since the time intervals between any two neighboring interfaces are equal, therefore, this fact proves that the interface migration velocity decreases with r and, thus, with time. This, in reality, reects the fact that as the process proceeds, the melted region increases and so does the radius of the melted region around the heat pipe. The same increment of melted region in the r direction at larger r needs more PCM to be melted than at smaller r. Actually, by applying a simple energy balance analysis to the melting front, one can prove that the interface migration velocity is simply in inverse proportion to r if a constant heating power is presumed. Therefore, the reduction in the interface migration velocity mainly results from this geometrical eect, and hence, although the PCM melting rate should

750

650

z (mm)

550

450

350

t (min) 60 72 84 96 108 120 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55

250

r (mm)
Fig. 8. Phase interface position at dierent times. Charging only mode: TPCM,0 = 28.5 C, Th = 80 C, mh = 3.33 kg/ min.

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1

955

0.8

0.6

f
0.4 0.2 0 0 44 88 132 176 220

t (min)
Fig. 9. Accumulated heat fraction versus time during the charging only operation: TPCM,0 = 28.4 C, Th = 80.1 C, mh = 3.33 kg/min.

decrease with time due to the decrease of the temperature dierence between the heat pipe wall temperature and the PCM, this reduction should be smaller than that in the interface migration velocity. Fig. 9 presents the accumulated heat fraction variation with time. The accumulated heat fraction f is equal to the heat accumulated at a given time to the total heat needed for melting all the PCM. The accumulated heat here includes both the sensible and the latent energy stored in the charging process and is calculated from the enthalpy dierences of the hot water between the inlet and the outlet. From this gure, we may nd that the accumulated heat fraction and time present a basically linear relationship within the testing period, which indicates a nearly constant PCM melting rate, especially in the later period of the process. 4.1.3. Inuences of the hot water inlet temperature As one may expect, the hot water inlet temperature should have a very strong inuence on the charging operation processes. Therefore, a large number of experiments were conducted to study this inuence. Figs. 10 and 11 summarize some of the typical results and depict the inuences of the hot water inlet temperature on the history of the heat pipe wall temperature and on the PCM temperature variation, respectively. It is shown from these gures that the inlet temperature of the hot water has a very strong and direct inuence. This is because, under the same initial temperature and ow rate conditions, the overall heat transfer coecient from the hot water to the PCM is basically a constant, and therefore, the heat ow from the hot water to the PCM (via the heat pipes) is directly proportional to the temperature dierence between the hot water and the PCM. Since the initial PCM temperature is the same in these experiments, therefore the heat ow is in direct proportion to the inlet temperature of the hot water to a great extent. We may further conclude the melting completion time should, thus, also decrease directly with the inlet temperature increase. Our experimental results prove this deduction: the time for completion of melting for the inlet temperature of 70 C is 251 min, for 80 C, this value is reduced to 149 min and for 90 C, it

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85

70

T (C)

55

40

Inlet temp. 90 C 80 C 70 C

25 0 50 100 150 200 250

t (min)
Fig. 10. Inuences of the hot water inlet temperature on the charging only process: heat pipe wall temperature at TC6 (TPCM,0 = 28.3 C, mh = 2.50 kg/min).

85

70

T (C)

55

40

Inlet temp. 90 C 80 C 70 C 0 50 100 150 200 250

25

t (min)
Fig. 11. Inuences of the hot water inlet temperature on the charging only process: PCM temperature at TC9 (TPCM,0 = 28.3 C, mh = 2.50 kg/min).

is only 121 min. The melting completion time of the hot water inlet temperature of 90 C is, thus, only 48% of that of 70 C, which means a reduction of 52% (note that the initial inlet temperature dierence, that is, the inlet temperature of the hot water minus the initial PCM temperature was changed from 41.7 to 61.7 C by increasing the inlet temperature from 70 to 90 C, which means an increase of 48% in the initial temperature dierence).

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4.1.4. Inuences of the hot water ow rate Increasing the hot water ow rate will enhance the heat transfer process between the hot water and the wall of the evaporator section of the heat pipe, and therefore, the hot water ow rates should also inuence the charging processes. Figs. 12 and 13 depict the inuences of the hot water ow rate on the heat pipe wall temperature and on the PCM temperature, respectively. From
75

65

T (C)

55

45 Flowrate 3.33 kg/min 2.50 kg/min 1.67 kg/min 0.83 kg/min

35

25 0 40 80 120 160 200 240

t (min)
Fig. 12. Inuences of the hot water ow rate on the charging only process: heat pipe wall temperature at TC6 (TPCM,0 = 28.2 C, Th = 80.1 C).

70

61

52

T (C)
43

34

Flowrate 3.33 kg/min 2.50 kg/min 1.67 kg/min 0.83 kg/min

25 0 40 80 120 160 200 240

t (min)
Fig. 13. Inuences of the hot water ow rate on the charging only process: PCM temperature at TC9 (TPCM,0 = 28.2 C, Th = 80.1 C).

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these two gures, we can see the ow rate does produce a signicant inuence on the process, and both the temperature of the heat pipe wall and the temperature of the PCM increase monotonously with the ow rate. As the ow rate increases from 0.83 to 3.33 kg/min, the melting completion time is reduced from 189 to 144 min, which indicates a reduction of 24%. Apparently, compared with the inlet temperature, the inuences of the ow rate are much weaker. This may be explained as follows. We all know from basic heat transfer theory that increasing the ow rate can only improve the convection heat transfer between the hot water and the wall of the evaporator section of the heat pipe, and the thermal resistance of this convection heat transfer process is less important than the thermal conduction resistance of the PCM due to the very small thermal conductivity of the PCM. Furthermore, according to convection heat transfer theory [18], the convection heat transfer coecient is directly proportional to the nth power of the ow rate, where n is a constant less than unity and within 0.4 and 0.8 for our unit under the experimental ow conditions. This also contributes to the weak eects of the ow rate on the process. From Figs. 12 and 13, we can also note that the inuence of the ow rate is less apparent in the initial period than in the longer time period. As has been mentioned earlier, the PCM has a small thermal conductivity, and thus, the solid PCM in the initial state should present a very large thermal resistance. Therefore, this thermal resistance is the dominant one in the overall heat transfer process from the hot water to the PCM. Thus, reducing the less important thermal resistance of the convection heat transfer process between the hot water and the heat pipe wall will not signicantly improve the overall heat transfer process. However, as the process proceeds, more and more PCM is melted and natural convection within the melted PCM gradually plays a role, and this results in a decrease in the thermal resistance of the PCM. Of course, the decrease in the thermal resistance of the PCM increases the relative importance of the convection thermal resistance between the heat pipe wall and the hot water in the overall heat transfer process, which results in a more apparent inuence of the ow rate compared with that in the initial period. 4.2. Discharging only operation performance The discharging only operation experiments were conducted under various conditions. The inlet temperature of the cold water was from 10 to 30 C, and the ow rate of the cold water was from 0.83 to 3.33 kg/min. As has been already mentioned in the previous section, in order to perform the discharging only operation experiments, the PCM was rst heated to a given temperature (usually well higher than the melting point of the PCM) by circulating the hot water for 3 to 4 hours. Then, after the PCM reached its given uniform temperature and the whole system was steady, the hot water circulation was stopped. As soon as the hot water was evacuated from the hot water passage, the cold water was started to circulate in the cold water loop and the experiment starts. 4.2.1. Solidication curves and discharging characteristics The discharging only operation is actually a solidication process of the PCM that results from the heat pipe cooling. In this operation mode, the section of the heat pipes that is buried in the PCM is the evaporator. Fig. 14 presents a group of typical solidication curves that were obtained in various discharging only mode experiments. From this gure, we can see that the PCM was cooled very quickly from the liquid to the solid state, and therefore, the mode is a typical solid-

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r, mm
60 TC6, 14 TC7, 31 TC8, 41 TC9, 48 TC10, 55

T (C)
40 20 0 50 100 150 200 250

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350

t (min)
Fig. 14. PCM temperature versus time at the dierent radial positions r = 14, 31, 41, 48 and 55 mm from the axis of the heat pipe at z = 140 mm: discharging only mode (TPCM,0 = 76 C, Tc = 17 C, mc = 1.67 kg/min).

ication process. The solidication curves can be divided into three dierent regions, the initial region, the solidication region and the cooling region. In the initial region, the liquid PCM is cooled to its melting point, and the heat recovered by the cold water is, therefore, mainly the sensible heat of the liquid PCM. Since the sensible heat is much smaller than the latent heat, the decreasing rate of the PCM temperature is faster in this period than in the other periods. After that, when solidication takes place, the process gets into the second stage, and the temperature of the PCM decreases much slower than in the initial period due to the latent heat releasing eect. Of course, after the solidication of the PCM is completed, the heat recovered by the cold water is again the sensible heat of the PCM, and this certainly speeds up the decreasing of the PCM temperature. It should also be noted that the temperature dierence between TC10 and TC6 rst increases and then decreases with time. To show this more clearly, Fig. 15 depicts the temperature prole along the radial direction at various times. At the very beginning of the process, the PCM is in the liquid state, and therefore, the eective conductivity of the PCM is well enhanced by the natural convection within the PCM. This and the initial uniform temperature certainly causes a uniform temperature distribution along the radial direction in the early stage of the process. However, as the process proceeds, solidication of the PCM nally commences. Solidication of the PCM not only restrains the natural convection but also produces a solid PCM layer of low thermal conductivity on the heat pipe. Therefore, the temperature gradient in the radial direction increases with time. This tendency continues until the process approaches its nal steady state as the PCM temperature approaches the cold water temperature. After that, the temperature gradient in the radial direction decreases with time, which means, as we can understand, that the system will nally acquire its new steady state with a new uniform temperature distribution after a long enough running time. From Fig. 15, one can see that the temperature prole of the nned region (near the heat pipe wall, the region of r = 1431 mm on the abscissa of Fig. 15) in the radial direction is more even

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65 55 45

T (C)

35 25 15 5 10 20 30 40 50 60 30 min 60 min 90 min 120 min 150 min 210 min 270 min

r (mm)
Fig. 15. PCM temperature proles in the radial direction at the dierent times. Discharging only mode: TPCM,0 = 76 C, Tc = 17 C, mc = 1.67 kg/min.

than that in the region r > 31 mm. This proves that the ns on the heat pipes do enhance the heat transfer process as expected. Fig. 16 displays the temperature distribution of the PCM at 60 min, which further proves the eectiveness of the ns in enhancing the heat transfer process. Fig. 17 presents the extracted heat fraction variation with time. The extracted heat here includes both the sensible and the latent energy discharged in the discharging process. By comparing this with the accumulated heat fraction during the charging only process that is depicted in Fig. 9, we can see their remarkable dierence. As has been pointed out earlier, the accumulated heat fraction present a basically linear relationship with time during the charging only operation, and the phase

60 55

60 55 50 45 40 750 620 37 490 360 z (mm) 19 10 100 230

T (C) 50
45 40 55 46

T (C)

r (mm) 28

Fig. 16. Temperature distribution of the PCM at 60 min. Discharging only mode: TPCM,0 = 76 C, Tc = 17 C, mc = 2.50 kg/min.

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1 1.5

961

0.8

1.2

0.6

0.9

f
0.4 0.6

0.2

f ,10-2/min

0.3

0 0 60 120 180 240

0.0 300

t (min)

Fig. 17. Extracted heat fraction versus time during the discharging only operation: TPCM,0 = 76 C, Tc = 17 C, mc = 2.5 kg/min.

change rate is nearly a constant, especially in the later period of the process. However, in the discharging only operation, the phase change rate decreases very quickly with time. To show this, a so-called relative phase change rate fs is also depicted in Fig. 17. Here fs is dened by the following equation, of ot fs was calculated simply from the f $ s experimental data by the forward dierencing method and the unit of fs is 102/min in Fig. 17. The dierences in phase change rate variation trends with time between the charging and the discharging process are a result of the dierent heat transfer resistance and natural convection eects. The charging only operation is actually a melting process. As the process proceeds, more and more solid PCM is melted, and therefore, the eective thermal conductivity of the PCM increases with time due to the enhanced natural convection eect. Hence, the thermal resistance during the charging only operation decreases with time. This certainly compensates the temperature decrease eect that would result in a large decrease of the phase change rate and restrains decreasing the phase change rate and, thus, presents a nearly constant phase change rate during the late period of the melting process. However, the discharging only operation is a process of solidication, and the solid phase PCM on the heat pipes increases with time. Thus, the natural convection is restrained by the diminishing liquid PCM space. The increased solid state PCM plus the restrained natural convection will certainly result in the increase of the thermal resistance of the process with time. This explains the reduced phase change rate in the late period of the solidication. As one may understand, due to the rapid decrease of the temperature dierence between the PCM and the heat pipe, the phase change rate for both the charging only and the discharging only modes decreases with time during their initial period, and therefore, they show a similar variation trend in this period. fs

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4.2.2. Inuences of the inlet temperature and the ow rate of the cold water As in the charging only operation, the inlet temperature and the ow rate of the cold water will aect the performance of the heat pipe heat exchanger. Figs. 18 and 19 depict the inuences of the cold water inlet temperature on the discharging process. It can be seen from these gures that the inlet temperature of the cold water has an important inuence. The reason for this is the same as for the charging only operation as it is stated in Section 4.1.3. That is, under the same initial temper80 70 60

Inlet temp. 10 C 17 C 25 C

T (C )

50 40 30 20 0 50 100 150 200 250 300

t (min)
Fig. 18. Inuences of the cold water inlet temperature on the discharging only process: heat pipe wall temperature at TC6 (TPCM,0 = 75.7 C, mc = 2.5 kg/min).

80 70 60

Inlet temp. 10 C 17 C 25 C

T (C)

50 40 30 20 0 50 100 150 200 250 300

t (min)
Fig. 19. Inuences of the cold water inlet temperature on the discharging only process: PCM temperature at TC9 (TPCM,0 = 75.7 C, mc = 2.5 kg/min).

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80

963

70

60

T (C)

Flowrate 0.83 kg/min 1.67 kg/min 2.50 kg/min 3.33 kg/min

50

40

30 0 80 160 240 320

t (min)
Fig. 20. Inuences of the cold water ow rate on the discharging only process: heat pipe wall temperature at TC6 (TPCM,0 = 75.5 C, Tc = 25 C).

ature and ow rate conditions, the overall heat transfer coecient from the cold water to the PCM is basically a constant, and therefore, the heat ow from the PCM to the cold water (via the heat pipes) is directly proportional to the temperature dierence between the PCM and the cold water temperature. Lowering the inlet temperature of the cold water means increasing the temperature dierence and, therefore, enhances the whole heat transfer process. The solidication completion time should, thus, also decrease with decreasing inlet temperature. For example, the time for completion of solidication for the inlet temperature of 25 C is 155 min, for 17 C, this value is reduced to 132 min and for 10 C, it is only 118 min. The solidication completion time of the cold water inlet temperature of 10 C is, thus, only 76% of that of 25 C, which means a reduction of 24% (note that the initial inlet temperature dierence, i.e., the initial PCM temperature minus the inlet temperature of the cold water was changed from 50.7 to 65.7 C by decreasing the inlet temperature from 25 to 10 C, which means an increase of 30% in the initial temperature dierence). Figs. 20 and 21 present the inuences of the cold water ow rate on the heat pipe wall temperature and on the PCM temperature, respectively. From these two gures, we can see the ow rate also produces a certain inuence on the process, and both the temperature of the heat pipe wall and the temperature of the PCM decrease monotonously with the ow rate. As the ow rate increases from 0.83 to 3.33 kg/min, the solidication completion time is reduced from 177 to 146 min, which indicates a reduction of 17.5%. It is worthwhile to mention that the inuence of the inlet temperature and the ow rate is stronger on the charging only process than on the discharging only process. This is because of the socalled sequence eects of insulation materials1 and the restrained natural convection. As time
For a cylindrical system, if there are two dierent thermal insulation materials that should be used for insulation, then a better insulation result can be obtained by placing the one of smaller thermal conductivity closest to the cylinder being insulated. This is an obvious conclusion of the analysis of the one dimensional composite cylindrical conduction system.
1

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80

70

60

T (C)

Flowrate 3.33 kg/min 2.50 kg/min 1.67 kg/min 0.83 kg/min

50

40

30 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350

t (min)
Fig. 21. Inuences of the cold water ow rate on the discharging only process: PCM temperature at TC9 (TPCM,0 = 75.5 C, Tc = 25 C).

elapses, the natural convection eect is becoming weaker in the discharging only mode, whereas this eect is becoming stronger in the charging only mode. Furthermore, the PCM that is in solid state has a smaller eective conductivity than that in the liquid state. Therefore, the equivalent thermal resistance on the PCM side, which is always the dominant term of the overall thermal resistance of the heat transfer process from the hot or cold water to the PCM, is bigger during the discharging only operation than the charging only operation. It is due to this increased PCM side thermal resistance of the discharging only operation compared with that of the charging only operation that results in its less sensitive reaction to the change of the ow rate and the inlet temperature.

5. Concluding remarks Using heat pipes as the heat transfer elements that run through the hot uid passage, the PCM chamber and the cold uid passage, a new latent heat thermal storage system has been developed. It has many advantages over other thermal energy storage devices. The heat transfer surface areas for the hot uid, for the PCM and for the cold uid may be designed independently, which permits one to enhance the overall heat transfer process more eciently by the rational design of each heat transfer surface. The system can be operated in dierent modes: the charging only, the discharging only and the simultaneous charging/discharging modes. This more exible operation makes it suitable for systems of time and/or weather dependent energy, especially solar energy and other renewable energies. The experimental results on the charging only mode and the discharging only mode of the system show that the new device performs the designed functions very well. It can both store and release the thermal energy eciently. Therefore, the device can be used as a conventional system in which the charging and discharging are operated independently.

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Extensive experimental investigations have been conducted of the inuences of the various operation parameters on the performance of the unit, and the results show that the inlet temperature of the cold/hot uid has a stronger inuence on the discharging/charging process than the ow rate. The results for the simultaneous charging/discharging mode will be reported in the second part of this paper. Acknowledgements This work is supported by the Key Project No. G2000026306 of The National Fundamental Research and Development Program, The Ministry of Science and Technology of The Peoples Republic of China, The National Key Technologies R & D Program Project No. 2003BA808A19-7, Chinese National Natural Science Foundation Project No. 50276001 and Beijing Natural Science Foundation Project No. 3032007.

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