Energy Conversion and Management 76 (2013) 865873

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Energy Conversion and Management

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

An adaptive-grid model for dynamic simulation of thermocline thermal

energy storage systems
Kody M. Powell , Thomas F. Edgar
The University of Texas at Austin, Department of Chemical Engineering, 200 E. Dean Keeton St. Stop C0400, Austin, TX 78712-1589, United States

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

Article history: The advent of the smart grid requires both reliable, cost-effective energy storage solutions and the ability
Received 31 January 2013 to accurately and efciently simulate these systems. Thermocline thermal energy storage, where heat is
Accepted 24 August 2013 stored over a temperature gradient, is a promising energy storage technology. However, because of the
complexities of thermal stratication, accurate, yet simple models are difcult to identify and generally
require complex computational uid dynamics (CFD) models. In this work, a novel, adaptive-grid
Keywords: one-dimensional model for representing thermocline thermal energy storage systems is presented and
Thermal energy storage
validated using experimental data. Compared to standard, xed-grid one-dimensional models, the adap-
Dynamic simulation
Smart grid
tive-grid model improves accuracy and decreases the required number of state variables and equations
Modeling by using a high-resolution grid in the region of thermal stratication and larger, variable-volume, isother-
Thermocline mal nodes to represent the ends of the tank. Experimental data shows that the adaptive-grid model is
more accurate than other one-dimensional models because it minimizes the effect of numerical diffusion
and better predicts system behavior when temperature inversion is introduced into the system. The
model presented has applicability in both cold and hot thermal energy storage systems and is advanta-
geous over CFD models when many repeated simulations are required, such as in optimization, control, or
prediction of long-term performance.
2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction where thermal energy is stored under a temperature gradient

The introduction of intermittent renewable sources of energy
and an ever-increasing push for more efcient operation of conven-
tional power generation systems has led to the advent of a smart
electric grid [1]. One of the key objectives for a smart grid is to
maintain reliability and efciency in the presence of transient sup-
ply and demand for energy [2,3]. In order to achieve this objective,
reliable, cost-effective energy storage technologies are required
[4,5]. Furthermore, because a smart grid embodies intelligent oper-
ation, accurate dynamic models of energy systems are required to
adequately predict or optimize system performance.
Because thermal energy ows play a signicant role in power
generation and consumption, thermal energy storage is a promis-
ing solution to some of the grids storage needs [69]. In order to
ensure effective and reliable integration of thermal energy storage
technologies into a smart grid environment, accurate and compu-
tationally efcient models are required for simulation. A prevalent
conguration for thermal energy storage technologies is the ther-
mocline system using chilled or heated liquids as storage media,
Corresponding authors. Tel.: +1 512 471 5150; fax: +1 512 471 7060.
E-mail address: kody.powell@utexas.edu (K.M. Powell).
[10,11]. This system uses buoyancy forces to maintain the gradient,
ensuring efcient operation by reducing mixing.
The use of thermocline systems creates a need for accurate
models to represent this system. Because thermocline systems
have spatial temperature dependence, modeling these systems is
much more complicated than isothermal systems, which has led
to the development of complex two- and three-dimensional dy-
namic models [12,13]. However, for simulation and optimization
of integrated energy systems, where the thermal energy storage
is a small part of a much larger energy network, accurate, yet sim-
plied models are needed [14,15]. These models must be computa-
tionally efcient while accurately representing tank behavior
under transient environmental conditions.
In this work, a novel one-dimensional adaptive-grid thermo-
cline model is presented. This model reduces the number of states
required for accurate temperature prediction in the tank by a factor
of ten compared to standard xed-grid one-dimensional model.
The model equations can therefore be solved much more quickly
and with greater accuracy than other one-dimensional models
and are therefore much more amenable for use in a larger energy
system model to be used for simulation or optimization in a smart
grid environment.

0196-8904/$ - see front matter 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2013.08.043
866 K.M. Powell, T.F. Edgar / Energy Conversion and Management 76 (2013) 865873
Nomenclature
Axs tank cross sectional area
CP storage uid heat capacity
m_ mass ow rate
P tank perimeter
T temperature
T time
U tank uid to ambient overall heat transfer coefcient
V node volume
Vmin minimum desired node volume
X tank height from bottom of tank
Dx length of node
E lumped mixing term representing diffusion, conduction,
and axial mixing
ehi higher-valued mixing term under conditions of temper-
ature inversion
P storage uid density
2. Background
Thermal energy storage, or the storing of energy as heat or cool-
ing, is a promising energy storage technology because of its sim-
plicity. Thermal energy is stored by changing a materials
temperature (sensible heat storage) or phase (latent heat storage),
meaning that any material with signicant thermal mass can be-
come a storage medium, thus making thermal energy storage a
low cost energy storage technology [16]. Thermal energy storage
can be used in conjunction with solar thermal heating systems to
help maximize the heat delivered from the sun to the heated space
[1719]. Thermal energy storage is critical in the eld of concen-
trated solar power (CSP) because it allows these systems to contin-
uously generate power during intermittent cloud cover or even
after sunset [2022]. Thermal energy storage can also be used for
cooling applications as a demand-side energy management tool
allowing for cooling loads to be shifted to off-peak hours, thereby
reducing strain on grid power generation equipment during peak
periods [2325].
Thermal energy storage can use a wide variety of materials as
storage media including liquids [11,26], solids [27,28], vapors
[29], or combinations, as in pebble (or packed) bed thermal energy
storage systems [3033]. Phase change materials, which store en-
ergy as latent heat, can greatly increase storage density [34,35].
Thermal energy storage systems employ a variety of congurations
including direct (when the circulating uid is also the storage med-
Fig. 1. Two tank thermal storage conguration.
Subscripts
amb ambient conditions
avg average temperature of Node 1 and node n
down net ow downward through inner nodes
I node number
mid temperature of middle node (for odd n) or average tem-
perature of two middle nodes (for even n)
N total number of nodes used in spatial discretization of
the tank
Sink ow through heat sink
Source ow through heat source
Up net ow upward through inner nodes
ium) and indirect (when the circulating uid transfers heat to a sep-
arate medium for storage) [21]. For liquid systems, the means by
which the warm and cold uids are separated from each other is a
critical issue as mixing of the two destroys exergy (the amount of
useful energy) and reduces the effective storage capacity of the sys-
tem [36]. A single well-mixed tank (Fig. 2), for example, will be the
least exergetically efcient, while a two-tank method is the most
efcient [37] because it achieves perfect separation of the warm
and cold uids (see Fig. 1). A thermocline system (shown in Fig. 3)
uses density differences between the warm and cold uid to achieve
thermal stratication, where the less dense warm uid is separated
from the cold uid by buoyancy forces, thus achieving temperature
separation using a single tank [36,3842]. In thermocline systems,
the exergetic efciency depends on the ability to keep the thermo-
cline region as narrow as possible, thereby achieving the best possi-
ble temperature separation. This ability is a function of tank design
factors, such as the design of the inlet ow diffusers (designed to
evenly distribute inlet ow over the cross-sectional area of the tank)
Fig. 2. Single mixed tank thermal storage conguration.
Fig. 3. Single tank thermocline conguration for thermal energy storage.
 K.M. Powell, T.F. Edgar / Energy Conversion and Management 76 (2013) 865873
[4346] and tank dimensions [47,48], as well as tank operating con-
ditions, such as ow rate and inlet temperature [4951].
2.1. Thermocline tank modeling
Because thermocline systems are prevalent and the phenome-
non of thermal stratication is complex, modeling of thermocline
systems is an active research eld. For tank and diffuser design,
complex two- and three-dimensional models may be utilized to
fully understand the dynamics of the system [12,13,52]. Some of
these models use computational uid dynamics (CFD) codes and,
while providing an understanding of the dynamic behavior of ther-
mocline tanks, are computationally intensive and therefore not
suitable for solving problems over long time horizons or for real-
time applications. For these purposes, one-dimensional models
which track temperature as a function of height in the tank are
much more amenable.
A one-dimensional model can be represented as a single partial
differential equation (PDE), which is generated from a spatially-
dependent energy balance on the tank, shown in (1). Because the
storage medium for thermocline systems are generally liquids as-
sumed to be incompressible and because the thermocline tank is
maintained at full volume, a mass balance is not required:
@T @T
qC p Axs _ source  m
C p m _ sink  UPTt; x  T amb eAxs 2
@t @x
Because heat transfer from one node to another can occur by
diffusion, conduction, or axial mixing due to turbulent ow, the
term e (which has units of thermal conductivity) is used as a
lumped parameter which represents the combined effect of these
modes of heat transfer. Rather than using a complex two- or
three-dimensional model to predict these phenomena, e can be
used as a tting parameter in a one-dimensional model, ensuring
that the model predictions align closely with measured data.
Although analytical solutions to systems represented by (1) or
similar systems are available, it is impractical to apply these solu-
tions under transient conditions, where mass ow and inlet or
ambient temperatures uctuate. These conditions lead to unchar-
acteristic behavior of the thermocline, which cannot be repre-
sented by a single analytical equation. Furthermore, when used
in conjunction with dynamic models of other parts of the system
(e.g., chillers, heaters, loads, etc.), the thermocline model must be
Fig. 4. Spatial discretization used to approximate temperature prole in the
thermocline tank.
867
compatible with these models. Therefore, dynamic models of the
system, which are solved by numerical integration methods at dis-
tinct time intervals are of practical value. In order to solve for spa-
tial temperature dependencies using numerical methods, spatial
derivatives are approximated by discretizing the tank into nodes
vertically with a nite difference method used to describe energy
ow between nodes. Fig. 4 shows a spatial discretization scheme.
Using the discretization scheme shown in Fig. 4 and computing
energy balances on each node, the single PDE is converted into a
set of n ordinary differential equations (ODEs), where n is the total
number of nodes used in the spatial approximation. The ODE for
the ith node is shown in (2). Because (2) represents an approxima-
tion, accuracy depends on the number of nodes used. Increasing n
improves accuracy as the height of each node (Dx) decreases,
making (2) a better approximation of (1). Integrating this set of
equations yields an approximate dynamic temperature prole of
the system:
dT i
qC p Axs Dx Cpm_ sink T i1  T i C p m
_ source T i1  T i
dt
eAxs
 UPDxT i  T amb T i1  2T i T i1 2
Dx
The tank is used in conjunction with two different loops: one for
2 ow through the heat source and the other for ow through the
@ T
heat sink. During heating mode, the cold storage medium ows
@x from the bottom of the tank, through the heat source, where its
1 temperature increases, and then returns to the top of the tank. Dur-
ing cooling mode, warm uid ows from the top of the tank,
through the heat sink, where its temperature decreases and then
returns to the bottom of the tank. While the two modes of opera-
tion generally take place at different times, it is possible to run
them simultaneously. A model can be constructed to represent
ow in either direction using two separate mass ow terms:
m_ source (for ow through the heat source) and m _ sink (for ow
through the heat sink). The net ow in the tank will be downward
when source ow exceeds sink ow and upward when sink ow
exceeds source ow.
2.2. Numerical diffusion
A negative result of spatial discretization using a nite difference
method for systems with ow is numerical diffusion, which causes
the model to exhibit higher diffusivity than the true physical system
[53,54]. To minimize this effect, higher spatial resolution is typically
used, which results in more nodes, and therefore more equations.
Fig. 5. A plot of temperature vs. tank height showing the effect of the number of
nodes on the degree of stratication predicted by the thermocline model.
868 K.M. Powell, T.F. Edgar / Energy Conversion and Management 76 (2013) 865873

Because of the spatial dependence of temperature in thermocline

thermal energy storage systems, the existence of numerical diffu-
sion is an important consideration, as it affects the degree of strati-
cation predicted by the model, which impacts the performance of
the model [55]. Fig. 5 shows the relationship between the number of
nodes used in simulation and the degree of stratication which the
model predicts. As the gure indicates, the use of more nodes re-
duces the effect of numerical diffusion. However, using more nodes
means that more equations must be solved, making the problem
more computationally intensive.

2.3. Variable inlet temperature

A wide range of methods have been used in attempt to con-

Fig. 6. The effect of temperature inversion. When lower temperature uid enters
the tank on top of higher temperature uid, buoyancy forces cause the layers to mix
until the tank reaches equilibrium. This results in a destruction of exergy as as the
two uids mix.
Fig. 7. A diagram showing the adaptive-grid thermocline model with the ow rate
terms that appear in the model. Flow to/from the source (m _ source ) and sink (m
_ sink )
enter and exit only at the end nodes. Net ow through the inner boundaries is
described by m _ down or m
_ up , depending on the direction of ow.
struct accurate, yet sufciently simple one-dimensional models
[5658]. The energy balances represented in (1) and (2) are gener-
ally accurate (given a sufciently high spatial resolution) when in-
let temperature (at either the top or the bottom) to the tank is
constant. However, because the phenomenon of thermal stratica-
tion is due to density gradients that arise as a result of temperature
differences, when the density gradient is inverted, undesirable
mixing occurs within the tank [59]. Therefore, when the density
of uid entering the tank is higher than the uid below it, buoyant
forces will cause these layers of uid to mix, a condition which is
detrimental to efciency due to entropy generation.
Several different approaches have been used in dynamic model-
ing to account for the possibility of variable temperature inlet ow,
which results in unwanted density gradients. In a multimode ap-
proach, the tank is divided into discrete sections (as in Fig. 4). A
variable inlet position model adds incoming uid to the node that
most closely matches the inlet ow in density [60]. The result of
this approach is the prediction of an ever widening thermocline
or possibly the existence of multiple thermoclines in the tank. An-
other approach to this problem is to use a xed inlet model, but to
average the temperatures of adjacent nodes at the end of each time
step whenever temperature inversions exist [57,61]. Similarly, un-
der the assumption that the lowest density node must always be at
the top of the tank, a multimode inversion approach is used. At the
end of each time step, any nodes exhibiting inverted temperatures
are switched spatially until the nodes are properly ordered from
highest temperature at the top of the tank to lowest at the bottom
[62]. These approaches represent varying levels of accuracy. They
are difcult, however, to incorporate as continuous-time ODE or
PDE models because of the computations that must be completed
at the end of each time step. Another approach that helps account
for varying inlet conditions is a plume entrainment model where it

Table 1
Mass balance for Node 1 and Node n under three different logic conditions.

m _ source > m _ sink ^ V 1 6 V min _ source > m
If net ow through the tank is in the downward direction (i.e. m _ sink ) and either the thermocline is above center (3a)
_m _ source > m _ sink ^ T mid < T avg ) or the volume of Node 1 is at or below a minimum value, the nodes remain stationary and net ow through the nodes is
dV n
dt
dVdt
1
0; dened in the downward direction
m_ down m _ source  m _ sink ;
m_ up 0

m _ sink > m _ source ^ V n 6 V min If net ow through the tank is in the upward direction (i.e. m _ source ) and either the thermocline is below center or
_ sink > m (3b)
_ _ )
_ msink > msource ^ T mid > T avg the volume of Node n is at or below a minimum value, the nodes remain stationary and net ow through the nodes is
dV 1
dt
dVdt
n
0; dened in the upward direction
m_ up m _ sink  m _ source ;
m_ down 0
9
m _ source > m _ sink ^ V 1 > V min >> If none of the restrictions in (3.1) or (3.2) apply, there is no net ow through the nodes as the control volumes of Node 1 (3c)
=
^T mid P T avg and Node n expand or contract
_ sink > m _ source ^ V n > V min > )
m >
;
^T mid 6 T avg
q dVdt1 m_ source  m_ sink ;
q dVdtn m_ sink  m_ source ;
m_ up m _ down 0
 K.M. Powell, T.F. Edgar / Energy Conversion and Management 76 (2013) 865873 869

is assumed that liquid jets persist at the tank inlet. Energy and
mass balances are then computed separately on the jet stream
and the surrounding uid so that they interchange energy with
each other [63]. These models help account for some of the effects
of varying inlet temperature. However, with effective diffuser
design, it can be reasonably assumed that the effects of jet streams
are negligible.
Fig. 6 illustrates the phenomenon of temperature inversion, as
observed in operating thermocline systems. When colder uid en-
ters the top of the tank, buoyancy forces cause this denser uid to
mix with the layer below it. This mixing continues until equilib-
rium is reached with temperature monotonically increasing as a
function of tank height. Delivering colder (warmer) than nominal
uid to the top (bottom) of the tank means that the energy storage
system is being under-utilized as temperature differences in the

Fig. 8. A diagram showing the movement of nodes for downward ow. (a) The nodes remain stationary while the center of the temperature gradient is above the center node
(denoted mid). (b) As ow proceeds downward, the temperature gradient moves to become centered over the center node. (c) As ow continues, the nodes in the thermocline
region move to keep the center of the temperature gradient aligned with the center node. (d) When the nodes reach the bottom of the tank, the movement stops and nodes
remain stationary.
870 K.M. Powell, T.F. Edgar / Energy Conversion and Management 76 (2013) 865873
heat source or heat sink are not fully exploited. This condition rep-
resents destruction of exergy in the tank. Therefore, it is critical to
model these effects properly in a dynamic system.
3. Modeling method
3.1. Adaptive-grid numerical methods
A particular class of transport problems involves situations in
which an interface or boundary moves over time. These problems
are known as Stefan problems and arise in a number of different
elds [6466]. The boundary in these problems is commonly an
interphase between two phases with the transport properties of
each phase varying widely, making these problems difcult to
solve [67]. In fact, analytical solutions for such problems exist only
for a limited number of cases [68,69], making the use of numerical
methods critical [70].
One numerical approach to solving problems of this type is to
use an adaptive-grid, which tracks the moving front using a
dynamically changing mesh [7173]. While stratied thermal en-
ergy storage systems do not have distinct phase boundaries, they
do have a relatively small region of varying temperature between
two larger, constant temperature regions. Therefore, an adaptive-
grid technique can be used to drastically reduce the number of
states required to represent the system.
3.2. Model description
Rather than using a xed, equally-spaced grid as is typical in
thermocline tank modeling, the adaptive-grid model uses a -
nely-spaced grid in the vicinity of the temperature gradient. This
section, referred to as the thermocline region, moves to track the
temperature gradient as it moves through the tank. This movement
is accommodated by two variable volume nodes at the ends of the
tank. For downward ow, the top node (Node n) expands while the
bottom node (Node 1) contracts (see Fig. 7). The middle nodes
(Node 2 through Node n  1) move with the ow so that the tem-
perature gradient remains centered in the thermocline region of
the grid. In certain situations, however, the grid will remain xed.
This occurs at the beginning and end of charge and discharge cy-
cles, when the temperature gradient enters or exits at one end of
the tank. This requires logic to be built into the material balances
for the end nodes of the tank and determines when the nodes move
or when they remain xed. In order to accommodate this, the ows
in and out of the tank (denoted m _ sink and m _ source ) only enter and
exit through the top and bottom control volumes. New ow rates
(m_ down and m _ up ) are dened as the net ow through the inner
nodes of the tank. When the grid moves, m _ down and m _ up are set
equal to zero as the inner nodes move with the ow, rather than
the ow passing through them. These ows are illustrated in Fig. 7.
The logic that determines when the node boundaries move is
shown in Table 1. The conditions that prevent the boundaries from
moving when net ow is downward (m _ source > m _ sink ) are when the
center of the temperature gradient is located above the center node
(determined by T mid < T avg ) or when the volume of Node 1 has
reached its minimal prescribed value V 1 6 V min , indicating that
the thermocline region has reached the bottom of the tank. When
either of these conditions applies, the volumes of the end nodes
will be xed and net ow downward will be dened, as indicated
in (3a). Similar conditions are used for upward ow as shown in
(3b). When none of the restrictions in (3a) or (3b) apply, the nodes
will move in order to track the temperature gradient, keeping its
center aligned with the center node(s). This is dictated by (3c),
where net ow through the thermocline region is dened to be
zero. Note that material balances for the inner nodes are not shown
Table 2
Energy balances for each node in the tank.
qC p dVdtn T n Energy balance on (4a)
_ source T source  m
C p m _ sink T n  m
_ down T n m
_ up T n1 Node n
UPDxn T n  T amb eDAxxs T n1  T n
qC p V i dTdti C p m_ up T i1  Ti m_ down T i1  T i Energy balance for (4b)
UPDxT i  T amb eDAxxs T i1  2T i T i1 Node 2 through
Node n  1
qC p dVdtn T n Energy balance for (4c)
_ source T source  m
C p m _ sink T n  m
_ down T n m
_ up T n1 Node 1
UPDxn T n  T amb eDAxxs T n1  T n
because they are trivial, with ow in and out always being equal,
resulting in no change in node volume.
The adaptation strategy is illustrated in Fig. 8. With the tank
starting at its cooler temperature, warm ow enters and the tem-
perature gradient begins to develop as shown in Fig. 8a. The nodes
remain stationary because m _ source > m
_ sink and T mid < T avg , indicat-
ing that the temperature gradient is above the thermocline region
specied in the model. As ow moves downward and T mid T avg ,
the nodes begin to move as indicated in Fig. 8b and c. Movement
stops as the thermocline region of the model reaches the bottom
of the tank as determined by the condition V 1 6 V min .
Energy balances are used to determine the temperature of each
node and are shown in Table 2. The energy balance for the top node
(Node n) is shown in (4a), which has volume included in the differ-
ential because the volume of this node is variable. Similarly, (4c)
shows the energy balance for the bottom node (Node 1). The inner
nodes (Nodes 2 through n  1) representing the thermocline region
of the model have constant volume, so this term is removed from
the differential in their energy balances (4b). When the nodes
move according to (3c), there is no net ow through these nodes,
which eliminates numerical diffusion.
In order to account for the mixing that occurs under tempera-
ture inversion due to variable inlet temperature, the model can
be enhanced to include temperature-gradient dependence on the
mixing parameter (e). When the temperature of a node is higher
than the node above it, buoyant mixing would ensue. This can be
represented mathematically by using a much higher mixing
parameter (ehi) when this condition exists, as indicated by (5). This
term should be several orders of magnitude higher than the stan-
dard mixing parameter (e), although both can be used as tting
parameters in the model:

ehi for T i > T i1
ei to i1 5
e otherwise
The adaptive-grid thermocline model is represented by n + 2
dynamic states: temperature for each node and volume for the
end nodes. Using this model, n can be much smaller than in a
standard model because high resolution nodes are only used in
the thermocline region. Because of the elimination of numerical
diffusion, these nodes can also have larger spacing than in a
standard model, where very high resolution must be used to re-
duce this effect. As a result, the adaptive-grid model can generally
have a fraction of the number of variables and equations as a stan-
dard model. Although somewhat counterintuitive, this reduced
model is actually more accurate than a standard model because
it prevents numerical diffusion and properly handles variable inlet
temperature in the general case.
4. Results and discussion
The adaptive-grid model is validated using operational data
from an industrial scale chilled water thermal energy storage tank.
The tank is designed to store approximately 8000 ton-hours of
cooling over a roughly 10 C temperature gradient. The tank is used
 K.M. Powell, T.F. Edgar / Energy Conversion and Management 76 (2013) 865873
in a district cooling loop, where a system of industrial-sized electri-
cal and thermal chillers is considered to be the heat sink. The heat
source for this system is a set of commercial buildings that use the
chilled water to cool building air. The tank used is 56 feet in height
and 50 feet in diameter.
The model results are presented under discharge conditions,
with warm water entering the top of the tank and colder water
exiting at the bottom. Fig. 9 shows the inputs for the tank during
one day of operation. As the gure indicates, ow and temperature
are kept fairly constant during the rst three and a half hours of
operation. 3 h and 40 min into the discharge period, the source
ow spikes, causing a drastic decrease in tank inlet temperature
several minutes later.
Fig. 10 shows the predicted temperature prole in the tank at
3 h. The results from the standard and variable inlet position model
using 600 nodes are also shown. This high spatial resolution is
required to prevent excessive numerical diffusion and to ensure
that the model remains sufciently accurate. In comparison, the
Fig. 9. Normalized tank inlet temperature and ow during an experimental run.
The ow is through the heat source. Temperature remains fairly constant until just
before hour four of the experiment, when ow increases dramatically, causing the
tank inlet temperature to drop drastically.
Fig. 10. Normalized tank temperature vs. tank height (1 corresponds to the top of
the tank) at hour three of the experiment. For the standard and variable inlet
models, 600 nodes are needed to minimize the effect of numerical diffusion. For the
adaptive model, only 60 nodes are required.
871
adaptive-grid model requires only 60 nodes to produce similar
and, in fact, more accurate results. Because the inlet temperature
has been essentially constant up to this time, all three models per-
form reasonably well in comparison to the actual measured
temperatures.
After hour three of discharging, when cooler water enters the
top of the tank, temperature inversion occurs. The experimental
data at hour four (Fig. 11) and hour ve (Fig. 12) clearly show that
temperature inversion is not maintained. Instead, the cold water at
the top of the tank diffuses down and mixes with the warmer lay-
ers below. This occurs until the tank equilibrates and a monotoni-
cally increasing temperature prole is achieved. The gure shows
that the standard model does not adequately represent the effect
of temperature inversion, with the results showing that the inver-
sion persists, rather than dissipates. The variable inlet position
model also inaccurately describes the tanks dynamic response to
temperature inversion by predicting an ever-widening thermocline
region. The adaptive-grid model, however, approximates the
regions above and below the thermocline being at a constant tem-
perature, which is much more consistent with the data.
The adaptive-grid model has several advantages over a standard
model. It is more accurate under the condition of temperature
Fig. 11. Tank temperature vs. tank height at hour four of the experiment. The model
simulations show that the adaptive-grid model is much more accurate than the
other models under temperature inversion in the tank.
Fig. 12. Tank temperature vs. tank height at hour ve of the experiment.
872 K.M. Powell, T.F. Edgar / Energy Conversion and Management 76 (2013) 865873
Table 3
Comparison of root mean squared error (RMSE) and number of
states for each model.
# States RMSE
Standard 600 .0601
Variable inlet 600 .0602
Adaptive 62 .0318
inversion. It also requires a signicantly reduced number of state
variables and equations, so it is less computationally intensive.
The major reason for these phenomena is that the model prevents
excessive numerical diffusion as the control volumes move with
the ow. The adaptive-grid model does have disadvantages how-
ever. For example, if higher temperature uid is introduced to
the tank after several hours of downward ow, theoretically, a sec-
ond thermocline could form. Because the adaptive-grid model
approximates the ends of the tank as constant temperature re-
gions, this model would not accurately represent this phenome-
non. However, it can safely be assumed that the occurrence of a
second thermocline would be rare under general operating condi-
tions. For circumstances where this may be a key issue, the inclu-
sion of a temperature-gradient-dependent e term into a standard
model produces accurate results. However, the large magnitude
of e under temperature inversion conditions creates a very stiff
model that is extremely computationally intensive when a large
number of states are used. The adaptive-grid model, therefore, pre-
sents a high accuracy and high computational efciency solution to
simulating thermocline thermal energy storage systems under
most conditions.
Table 3, shown above, highlights the accuracies of the models
used to represent the thermocline process. The table shows both
the number of states used in each dynamic model in addition to
the root mean squared error (RMSE). RMSE is computed using
the normalized temperatures from each model for the entire sim-
ulation period. Despite having 90% fewer states, the adaptive grid
model dramatically reduces the modeling error as compared to
the data.
5. Conclusions
The implementation of the smart grid requires reliable and eco-
nomical energy storage technologies. Thermocline thermal energy
storage systems have proven to be cost effective as they require
minimal capital investment, but can shift a signicant portion of
the thermal load for a system. These systems can be used in lieu
of electrical storage due to the fact that thermal loads are a signif-
icant contributor to electricity consumption. They have found
application in HVAC applications for space cooling and space heat-
ing and in concentrated solar power generation.
In addition to energy storage, the smart grid will require accu-
rate and efcient modeling, so that simulation can be used to pre-
dict performance or for real-time optimization. Because
thermocline systems have a spatial dependence on temperature,
modeling of these systems becomes more complex than for iso-
thermal systems. Two of the key issues encountered in modeling
thermocline systems are numerical diffusion and temperature
inversion. By employing an adaptive-grid methodology, where
the control volumes representing the thermocline region of the
tank move with the ow, the effect of numerical diffusion is min-
imized, meaning that more accurate models can be produced using
far fewer state variables and equations. Because larger nodes at the
ends of the tank are used to represent constant temperature re-
gions, this model also better represents scenarios where tempera-
ture inversion occurs. The model is enhanced by adding a
temperature-gradient-dependent mixing parameter to represent
buoyancy mixing, which occurs when temperature inversion
persists.
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