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a
Department of Computer and Industrial Engineering, University of Lleida, C/Jaume II 69, 25001 Lleida, Spain
b
Department of Environmental and Soil Sciences, University of Lleida, C/Jaume II 69, 25001 Lleida, Spain
Abstract
This paper deals with the exergetic optimization of a solar thermal energy system. This consists of a solar collector (SC) and a rect-
angular water storage tank (ST) that contains a phase change material (PCM) distributed in an assembly of slabs. The study takes into
account both conduction and convection heat transfer mode for water in the SC, and also the phase change process for the PCM in the
ST. An analytical solution for the melting process in the PCM is also presented. The results of the study are compared with previous
experimental data, confirming the accuracy of the model. Results of a numerical case study are presented and discussed.
2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Thermal energy storage; Analytical model; Exergy analysis; Optimization; Solar energy; Phase change materials
0017-9310/$ - see front matter 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2005.10.014
1256 F. Aghbalou et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 49 (2006) 1255–1263
Nomenclature
Greek symbols
a thermal diffusivity (k/qCp) (m2 s1)
D increment
Zivkovic and Fujii [10] have presented a simple compu- thermodynamics, that is, availability analysis. Energy effi-
tational model based on enthalpy formulation for isother- ciency, i.e., the ratio of the energy returned from the storage
mal PCM encapsulated in a single container. The model to the energy originally delivered to the storage, does not
was confirmed experimentally. In a recent work, Stritih take into account all the considerations necessary in ther-
[11] has studied experimentally the heat transfer problem mal energy storage evaluation, like storage duration and
in the solidification and melting processes of a latent heat temperatures of the supplied and recovered thermal energy
storage system with a finned surface. Results are compared and the surroundings. The common method of energy
with those of heat storage unit with a flat surface. accounting ignores completely the quality of energy. It only
Several methodologies for Thermal Energy Storage tracks the quantity, which according to the first law of ther-
(TES) evaluation and comparison have been investigated modynamics will never change. A better method for energy
[12,13] concluding that the only adequate method providing accounting could be based in both, first and second law of
significant information is that based on the second law of thermodynamics, which asserts that work is the highest
F. Aghbalou et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 49 (2006) 1255–1263 1257
Velocity, vw, and density, qw, of water are related through Therefore, the available energy, U, corresponding to a
expression given flow rate, m, _ during an interval [0, t] is
Z t
m_ w
vw ¼ ð4Þ U¼ _ 0 Þ/ðt0 Þ dt0
mðt ð9Þ
qw Acr 0
where m_ w is the water flow rate and Acr is the tube cross Substituting Eqs. (7) and (8) into Eq. (9) and applying
sectional area. Eulers equation [16], the dimensionless temperature hopt
Using the basic relation for the enthalpy variation as a that maximises the available energy, U, can be found
function of the temperature change, dH = mCp dT, corre- 3
sponding to a control volume of length Dx, the following ðhopt 1Þ K
¼ ð10Þ
equation can be easily found: hopt ln hopt hopt þ 1 C
oT m_ w Similar expression differing only by the right side of Eq.
vw ¼ ð5Þ (10) was proposed by Bejan [17] considering only the con-
ox M SC ðT T amb Þ
duction mode transfer for water.
From Eqs. (4) and (5) it can be obtained In order to avoid water evaporation the restriction
hopt < 100/Tamb has been imposed to the maximising
o2 T qw Acr
¼ ðT T amb Þ ð6Þ procedure.
ox2 V SC
Using this result in Eq. (7) the optimal water mass flow
Using Eqs. (2), (5) and (6) in Eq. (1) and arranging the rate, m_ opt , can be also determined.
terms, the following expression can be found: For a given amount of solar irradiation, I, the optimal
K N oh water flow rate, m_ w , for a given hour of a given day can
m_ w C pw T amb ¼ C ð7Þ be calculated form Eq. (7). Considering a complete day
h1 h 1 ot
of energy absorption, the tank volume can be calculated.
where the following parameters are introduced:
The input temperature of water in the solar collector can
T reasonable be assumed to be constant and equal to ambient
h¼
T amb temperature Tamb, as the tank will present the stratification
K ¼ I g AC phenomena.
AC T amb k w Acr
C¼ Bi 3. Availability maximisation of the SEST with PCM
‘ AC
N ¼ T amb M SC C pw In order to increase the stored energy density and the
h‘ quality of the stored energy, a PCM is introduced in the
Bi ¼
kw water tank. The thermal energy of the incoming water from
M SC the SC is released to the PCM raising its temperature. Once
‘¼ the melting temperature is reached, thermal energy is
qw Acr
stored in the PCM as latent heat at constant temperature.
where kw is the thermal conductivity of water. The proposed tank in this work has a rectangular geometry
The specific available energy of water, /, between states and the PCM is contained in slabs of parallelepiped shape
corresponding to temperatures Tamb and T is given by regularly distributed parallel to the stream direction, as
/ ¼ C pw T amb ðh 1 ln hÞ ð8Þ shown in Fig. 3. This slabs can be made of thin aluminium
walls to ensure a good heat transfer between the water and 4. Analytical model for melting in PCM slabs
the PCM.
This section presents a procedure to find the optimal In order to complete the exergy study of SEST, the heat
melting temperature and the maximum power output for transfer process within the PCM has been investigated. As
the PCM in the ST based on the maximisation of the avail- a result of this study, the time necessary for completely
ability of the SEST. This is done by assuming that the melt the PCM is obtained. This depends on boundary con-
SEST behaves like a Carnot heat engine. ditions, the geometry of the PCM slab and the thermo-
The main process that takes place in the ST is a heat physical properties of the PCM.
exchange between the water coming from the solar collec- Heat transfer problems in PCM is a complicated subject
tor and the PCM in the slabs. As the hot stream of a flow as they show time dependence and non linear phenomena
rate m_ at temperature Tin gets in contact with a PCM, a with a moving liquid–solid interface, different values for
fraction of the energy of the hot stream is released to the the thermo-physical properties of the solid and liquid states
PCM and consequently the temperature of the hot stream of the PCM, and two-dimension or three-dimension geo-
falls to Tout. Assuming both, steady state and PCM at melt- metry. For these reasons the following assumptions have
ing temperature, Tm, the output temperature of the hot been done:
stream can be deduced writing the energy conservation
equation for the hot stream, • Due to the thin thickness of PCM slabs, heat is assumed
N tu to be transferred from the walls to the liquid–solid inter-
T out ¼ T m þ ðT in T m Þe ð11Þ
face in a one-dimension heat conduction transfer mode
where Ntu is the number of transfer units, defined by in the x-direction.
expression • Due to the relatively small temperature gradient, the
UA thermo-physical properties of the PCM are assumed to
N tu ¼ ð12Þ be constant.
m_ w C pw
where A is the heat transfer area between the hot stream In terms of the excess temperature function
and PCM and U is the overall heat transfer coefficient. H(x, t) = Tmean T(x, t), the melting process is described
Considering that SEST with a PCM behaves like a heat en- by equation (see Fig. 3),
gine describing a Carnot cycle, i.e., heat leaves the high
temperature reservoir at temperature Tm and goes into o2 H 1 1 oH1
¼ ð17Þ
the heat engine that does a certain amount of work, W, ox2 a1 ot
rejecting heat into the low temperature reservoir at temper- where 1 denotes both solid and liquid state and a1 is the
ature TL, then, the efficiency gSEST of the SEST can be thermal diffusivity.
expressed as This equation has to be solved with initial conditions
W TL t ¼ 0; H1;0 ¼ T mean T 0 ð18Þ
gSEST ¼ ¼1 ð13Þ
m_ w C pw ðT in T out Þ Tm
and boundary conditions
Substituting the expression for Tout found in (11) in this
oHl
equation, the expression for the work done by the heat x ¼ 0; kl¼ hHl ð19Þ
engine can be determined as ox
oHs
TL x ¼ l; ¼0 ð20Þ
W ¼ m_ w C pw ðT in T m Þ 1 e Ntu
1 ð14Þ ox(
Tm H1 ¼ T mean T m
x ¼ dðtÞ; ð21Þ
Maximising this work the optimal melting temperature k l oH
ox
l
þ k s oH
ox
s
¼ ql L ddðtÞ
dt
Tm,opt for the PCM can be found
1
where d(t) is the position of the moving liquid–solid inter-
T m;opt ¼ ðT in T L Þ2 ð15Þ face. After all mathematical arrangements and operations,
This result is in agreement with the optimal latent heat the solution of Eq. (17) verifying Eqs. (18)–(21), gives d(t)
storage temperature determined by Lim et al. [18]. How- as
ever, their maximum power output deduced does not Tm T0 2k s ðT m T 0 Þ
reflect the phase change process. erfcðkÞ
T mean T 0 hðT mean T 0 Þðl dðtÞÞ
Substituting expression (15) for the optimal melting X
1
n 2 k
temperature in Eq. (14), the maximum output power, ð1Þ nn enn Fos sin nn ¼ ð22Þ
Bim Ste
Wmax, can be deduced: n¼0
as t 380
Fos ¼ 2
ðl dðtÞÞ
hðal tÞ0:5
Bim ¼ 360
kl
1
nn ¼ n þ p
Topt,out (K)
2
dðtÞ 340
k¼ 0:5
2ðal tÞ
For a given d, Eq. (22) is solved to give time t. In order to
verify the validity of the model, we compared the experi- 320
5. Case study for each value of the hourly solar irradiation Ig,j, shown in
Fig. 4. Fig. 5 shows the result for Topt,j = hopt,j Æ Tamb, the
A complete solar installation situated at Lleida city in optimal temperature at each hour for the water going out
Catalunya, Spain, is studied. The SC is oriented N ! S, the SC. Due to the stratification phenomena, the SCs input
with an optimal inclination of 45, AC = 1.9 m2, and temperature could be considered as constant during all the
M0 = 4 L. A Marchs representative day has been consid- irradiation period and equal to the ambient temperature
ered for calculating all parameters design and optimiza- Tamb.
tion. The collected solar irradiation is shown in Fig. 4. Once hopt,j is know for each hour, the optimal water
Thermal losses in water ducts between SC and SEST are flow, m_ opt;w , is evaluated from Eq. (7). Fig. 6 shows the
neglected. Only the collectors characteristics as the caption optimal water flow, m_ opt;w , at each hour as a function of
area AC, tube sectional area Acr and SCs water charge MSC time. From Figs. 5 and 6 it could be seen that SCs optimal
are needed. output temperature reaches its maximum value of 372.5 K
The first step is to optimize the water mass flow through during 3 h, i.e., from 12 h to 15 h, when the optimal flow
the SC in order to extract the maximum work from the rate is an increasing function. This reaches a maximum
solar energy, as explained in Section 2. For this purpose, value of 9.487 L/h from 17 h to 18 h. Integrating the curve
the optimal reduced temperature at each hour for the water
going out of the SC, hopt,j, is calculated by solving Eq. (10)
10
700
600 8
500
m opt (L/hr)
I g (W/m )
2
400 6
300
4
200
100
8 10 12 14 16 18
2
Hour (hr) 10 12 14 16 18
Hour (hr)
Fig. 4. Global solar irradiation variation during day March, 16th 2003 in
Lleida (Spain). Fig. 6. SCs optimal flow rate variation during the day.
F. Aghbalou et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 49 (2006) 1255–1263 1261
in Fig. 6, the optimal volume of water in SEST, Vopt, is (Tin Tm). The waters mean temperature bathing each
found to be 55 L. PCMs hourly section is evaluated simply by Tmean =
Once this value is found, next step consists on maximis- (Tout + Tin)/2.
ing the availability of the SEST, as explained in Section 3. The other important key parameter for design in this
First, the number of slabs, n, and the guess value for the problem is the melted thickness, d(t), which is function of
temperature at which the thermo-physical properties of the thermal properties of the PCM, thickness and bound-
water are computed, Tk, are introduced. This allows for a ary conditions, this is, h and Tmean. This is evaluated by
determination of the hourly Reynolds number, Rej, com- using Eq. (22).
puted as Fig. 7 shows the variation of the optimal melting tem-
m_ j perature of the PCM, Tm,opt, and the mean temperature
Rej ¼ ð23Þ of the water bathing the PCM slabs, Tmean, with the
lw np D2h
PCM slabs height during the first 6 h, i.e. 9–15 h. As the
where lw is the viscosity of water, n is the number of slabs height of the PCM slab increase, Tm,opt and Tmean decrease.
and Dh is the hydraulic diameter calculated as Thus, for l = 0.135 m, Tm,opt = 363 K and Tmean = 365 K
whereas for l = 0.38 m, Tm,opt = 327 K and Tmean = 332 K.
2anðl þ aÞ
Dh ¼ ð24Þ From 15 h to 18 h and depending on the chosen PCMs
a þ 2nðl þ aÞ
melting temperature, a fractional energy, W, will be given
where a is the distance between two slabs and l is the thick- by the melted PCM to the entering water. Fig. 8 shows that
ness of each slab. for l = 0.135 m, W = 58.54% and for l = 0.38 m,
The hourly Nusselt number, Nuj, can be calculated from W = 25.49%.
the empirical correlation for convective flow through tubes In order to chose the optimal PCM, the irreversibility Ir
[19] defined as the energy not recovered by the PCM from
entering water [20], has been evaluated. Considering Rubi-
0:065 Dbh Rej Pr
Nuj ¼ 3:66 þ 0:667 ; if Re < 2300 ð25Þ therm PCM products [21] and from Fig. 9, for
1 þ 0:04 Dbh Rej Pr Tm,opt = 327 K, the recovered energy by the entering water
f
ðRej 1000ÞPr during the 3 h is 612.18 kJ while the energy not recovered
8
Nuj ¼ ;
0:5 0:667 if Re P 2300; by water, i.e. the irreversibility, is 1836.54 kJ. However,
1þ 12:7 f8 1
Pr for Tm,opt = 363 K, the recovered energy by the entering
2
f ¼ 0; 790 lnðRej Þ 1:64 ð26Þ water is 561 kJ while the energy not recovered is 406 kJ.
Thus, the irreversibility at Tm,opt = 363 K is 4.52 lower
where b is the slabs high and Pr is the Prandtl number: than the one at Tm,opt = 327 K. For this reason, the energy
C p lw quality extracted at Tm,opt = 363 K is 4.52 times better than
Pr ¼ ð27Þ the energy extracted at Tm,opt = 327 K.
kw
At the upper layer of height 0.136 m, the temperature of
From the definition of the Nusselt number the water is Tmean = 365 K for almost 5 h. Eq. (22) suggests
hDh
Nu ¼ ð28Þ
kw
380
and the value obtained with Eqs. (25) and (26), the hourly
heat transfer coefficient, hj can be calculated. From expres- Tm,opt
sion (12), the hourly number of transfer unit, Ntu,j, can be
calculated. Tmean
From Eq. (15) and the guess value T k, the optimal melt- 360
ing temperature for the PCM is calculated. With the
obtained value of Tm,opt and Nu, the output temperature
T (K)
Tout is calculated with Eq. (11). From Tin and Tout, the
temperature at which the thermo-physical properties of
water are computed T k+1 is then re-calculated as T k+1 = 340
(Tout + Tin)/2 and compared with T k. The process is
repeated until the condition jT k+1 T kj < e is satisfied.
The information given by the number of transfer units,
Ntu, is very important for designing. For instance it informs
of whether n should be changed or not.
320
The fractional energy, W, given by the melted PCM of a 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
melting temperature, Tm, and recovered by the entering Height PCM−slabs (m)
water is defined as the actual energy given by the PCM Fig. 7. Variation of PCMs optimal melting temperature and waters mean
divided by the total energy, that is, W = (Tmean Tm)/ temperature bathing PCMs slabs with the PCMs slabs height.
1262 F. Aghbalou et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 49 (2006) 1255–1263
1 1
0.8
Recovered fractional energy (%)
0.8
Tm =54 oC ; Ste=0.554
0.6
δ/l
Tm =64 oC ; Ste=0.694
0.6 0.4
Tm =80 oC ; Ste=0.878
0.2
0.4 Tm =90 oC ; Ste=0.903
0
0 1 2 3 4 5
t (hr)
0.2
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 Fig. 10. Time evolution of the melted portion for different PCM.
Height PCM−slabs (m)
1000
for Tm = 363 K, l = 0.135 m. The fractional energy, W,
function of Tm, given by the PCM-slabs to the entering
water has been also examined. For Tm = 363 K,
500 W = 58.54% and for Tm = 327 K, W = 25.49%. The irre-
versibility is 406 kJ at Tm,opt = 363 K, while it is 1836.54
Recovered by entering water at Tm,opt = 327 K. Therefore, the energy to be recovered
Not recovered by entering water at Tm = 363 K is 4.52 times better from the quality point
0 of view. The examination of the melting process in a
320 330 340 350 360 370
T m,opt (K) PCM-slabs–SEST assembly shows that the maximal
PCM-slabs thickness allowed is of about 2l = 0.006 m.
Fig. 9. Variation of recovered and not recovered energy with the chosen
PCMs optimal temperature.
Thus, for n = 20 slabs, for Tm = 327 K (resp. Tm = 363 K)
the SEST size is 0.4 · 0.4 · 0.46 m (resp. 0.4 · 0.4 ·
0.39 m).
that l should not be greater than 0.003 m. With the aim of
obtaining a square base tank, we find that the most accept-
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