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Energy and Buildings

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

Simulation of energy storage system with phase change material (PCM)

Mohammad Rostamizadeh a,b, , Mehrdad Khanlarkhani b , S. Mojtaba Sadrameli b
a b

Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology (IUST), Narmak, Tehran, Iran Department of Chemical Engineering, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

a r t i c l e

i n f o

a b s t r a c t
Thermal energy storage plays an important role in a wide variety of industrial, commercial and residential applications. Phase change material (PCM) is used in these systems in order to store heat. Latent heat storage in a PCM is very attractive, because of its high-energy storage density and isothermal behavior during the phase change process. Increasing of building energy storage capacity can be achieved with decreasing the indoor air temperature variations so that the indoor temperature goes near comforting temperature for a long time that results in more comfort for human. In this paper, a mathematical model was developed based on an enthalpy formulation and the effect of PCM thickness on temperature distribution in PCM and melting fraction was investigated. Results show that melting time change linearly with the amount of PCM and lower thicknesses are suitable for a better PCM performance. 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Article history: Received 2 December 2011 Received in revised form 20 February 2012 Accepted 26 February 2012 Keywords: Space heating Energy storage PCM Finite difference method

1. Introduction Scientists all over the world are in search of new and renewable energy sources. One of the options is to develop energy storage devices, which are as important as developing new sources of energy. Thermal energy storage systems provide the potential to attain energy savings, which in turn reduce the environment impact related to non-renewable energy use. When the energy crisis subsided, much less emphasis was put on latent heat storage. Thermal energy storage is a practical and important way in conserving available energy and improving its utilization. Therefore, the use of proper thermal energy storage systems presents a better solution for discrepancy between energy supply and demand. Due to their advantages such as high-energy storage density and isothermal phase transition (small temperature swing), the phase change materials (PCMs) used in latent heat storage units (LHSU), are promising candidates as heat storage mediums. Recently, the LHSU using PCMs have gained considerable attention in various applications such as solar energy [1], hot water [2], heating and cooling of building [3] and electronic cooling [4]. Several mathematical models were developed [5] to provide an optimum design of the LHSU. As demand for air conditioning increased greatly during the last decade, large demands of electric power and limited reserves of fossil fuels have led to a surge in interest with regard to

Corresponding author at: Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology (IUST), Narmak, Tehran, Iran. Tel.: +98 9144080788. E-mail address: Rostamizadeh@iust.ac.ir (M. Rostamizadeh). 0378-7788/$ see front matter 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.enbuild.2012.02.037

energy efciency. Because we spend most of our time in enclosed spaces, technology to improve the thermal comfort of buildings has steadily increased, causing a corresponding increase in energy consumption. Consequently, this has increased the release of polluting agents into the natural environment. The use of PCM materials for construction has been a subject of considerable interest in the last decade. An interesting feature is that they can store latent heat energy, as well as sensible energy. Murat and Khamid [6] presented a review of investigations and developments carried out during the last 1015 years. In order to cool a room with a cold night air, PCMs are stored in an air heat exchanger. During night the PCMs crystallize, energy is released. During daytime air is circulated in the unit, energy is absorbed and the indoor air is cooled. The characteristic of PCM is that there is an increase of the specic heat over a limited temperature span. This is the principle of the PCM air heat exchanger unit. Packing the PCM in single container enables modular construction of the latent heat energy storage (LHES) unit and is economic from the viewpoint of mass production. Moreover, complete melting of the PCM, which is necessary for long-term heat storage. There are several promising developments going on in the eld of application of PCMs for heating and cooling of building. Mehling and Hiebler [7] summarized the investigations and developments on using PCMs in buildings. Farid et al. [8] also presented a review on the analysis of phase change materials, hermetic encapsulation and application of PCMs. Supercooling has been a problem of PCM application and development, particularly for salt hydrates [9,10]. To avoid supercooling and deformation of cooling curves after more cycles of melting and freezing, one solution is to add a nucleating agent, which provides the nucleon

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Nomenclature A TPCM b T(x) C u dt Up fl V h x i k L P T TAir Tp area of cross section of duct temperature in PCM width of the heat exchanger temperature at coordinate x heat capacity of air, 1007 J/(K kg) air velocity length of time step heat transfer coefcient between middle of PCM and air liquid friction volume heat transfer coefcient length coordinate time step number (index) conductivity length of heat exchanger perimeter of the heat exchanger temperature inlet air temperature temperature in PCM node

Fig. 1. Geometry of the rectangular duct.

(2) The effects of natural convection within the melt are negligible and can be ignored. (3) The PCM is assumed to have a denite melting point. (4) Thermo physical properties of the PCM are different for solid and liquid phases but are independent of temperature. (5) The PCM behaves ideally, i.e. supercooling is not accounted for. (6) The PCM is homogenous and isotropic. (7) Thermal resistance across the wall of the container is neglected. 2.1. Heat exchanger model as airow in a duct The heat exchanger is modeled as duct with airow where the PCM has a constant temperature. Heat balance for an element dx is, see Fig. 1 [8]: uA c(T (x) T (x + dx) + P dx Up (TPCM T (x))) = 0 (1)

Greek letters thermal diffusivity of PCM heat conductivity for air, 0.0257 W/(m2 K) thickness of PCM density of air, 120 kg/m3

The solution of the governing differential equation is: which crystal formation is initiated [11]. Another possibility is to retain some crystals, in a small cold region, to serve as nuclei [12]. Modeling of the PCM is a moving boundary problem as the solidliquid interface where such problem being solved is moving during the phase change [13]. For the phase change processes the heat equation and its differential expression hold within the liquid or solid and a jump condition expressing energy conservation prevail along the curves separating solid from liquid [14]. Some analytical approximations like the quasi-stationary approximation, perturbation methods, and the heat-balance integral method have been produced for one dimensional moving boundary problems with different boundary conditions [15]. There are several approaches to the mathematical modeling of LHES units. In some models, conduction within the PCM in both the direction of the heat transfer uid (HTE) ow and the direction normal to the HTE ow is taken into account. While in most works, convective heat transfer from the HTE to the PCM is calculated through the mean value of the heat transfer coefcient. Some authors solved the problem of phase change coupled HTE and PCM. In this paper, the mathematical model was based on an enthalpy formulation with equations cast in such a form that the only unknown variable is the PCMs temperature. The numerical analysis of the temperature distribution in the PCM was then performed using the computational model. The effect of PCM thickness on temperature distribution in PCM was also investigated. 2. Method The subject of the present paper is a single container lled with PCM (Fig. 1). The mathematical model was derived under the following assumptions: (1) Thermal conductivity of the PCM in the direction of the HTE ow is ignored. T (x) = TPCM + (TAir TPCM ) e((PUp )/(uA where T(0) = TAir . 2.2. PCM model with nite difference model In the PCM model, the one dimensional transient heat equation for constant conductivity, density and specic heat was used: qx qx qx f1 T dx + qc V = CV x t t (3)
c))x

(2)

In the above equation, the local liquid fraction (fl ) is given as:

f1 =

0 if T < Tm , (Solid)

During melting or solidication of the PCMs,

f1 is dependent and between 0 and 1

1 if T > Tm , (Liquid)

For completely solid or liquid phases last term in above Eq. (3) vanishes and the equation for an interior node i is given as: 2 T h T + (TAir Tp ) = C t x2 (4)

where is the thermal diffusivity of PCM. = k c

Discretizing Eq. (4) using backward difference, temperature of each node is calculated by Eq. (5): Ti,j+1 = Ti,j + h t t [Ti+1,j 2Ti,j + Ti1,j ] + (TAir Tp ) C x2 (5)

However during melting or solidication, the sensible heat change becomes zero for an isothermal phase change, hence Eq. (6) after

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M. Rostamizadeh et al. / Energy and Buildings xxx (2012) xxxxxx Table 1 PCMs properties and storage parameters. Description Specic heat solid [kJ/(kg K)] Specic heat solid [kJ/(kg K)] Latent heat [kJ/kg] Melting temperature [ C] Density solid [kg/m3 ] Density liquid [kg/m3 ] Conductivity solid [W/(m K)] Conductivity liquid [W/(m K)] TH29 [17] 1.4 2.2 190 29 1710 1530 1.09 0.53 CaCl2 6H2 O 1.4 2.2 187 29.9 1710 1530 1.09 0.53 3

Fig. 2. Discretization domain for a one-dimensional phase change problem.

discretization and using backward difference can be re-arranged to give:

60

Experimental data Numerical solu on

f1j+1 = f1j +

(6)

Temperature(C)

h t t [Ti+1,j 2Ti,j + Ti1,j ] + (TAir Tp ) x2

50 40 30 20 10 0 0

The initial and boundary conditions are: T (x, 0) = T0 k T = h(TAir (t) T (0, t)) at x = 0 x

T = h(T (L, t) TAir (t)) at x = L k x where T(0,t) and T(L,t) are the surface temperatures of the PCM storage and TAir (t) represents the temperature of the air inside the LHES. To solve the model for each node (Fig. 2), the above initial and boundary conditions are discretized by using a backward difference. 3. Verication 3.1. Test problem The performance of the presented method is rst veried with a one-dimensional phase change testing problem explained in Fujii and Yano [16]. An experiment was performed in order to investigate the inuence of the assumptions of the mathematical model.

Time(min)

50

100

Fig. 3. Variation with time of PCMs temperature at the center of the rectangular container [16].

The PCM used for experimental analysis was calcium chloride hexahydate (CaCl2 6H2 O) with thermophysical properties as listed in Table 1. A rectangular container, made of stainless steel, with dimensions l = b = 100 mm and = 20 mm, was lled with the calcium chloride hexahydate and well insulated on the lateral sides. The computational model was set up to reproduce experimental conditions within the constant temperature bath. In Fig. 3, the variation with time of numerical and experimental values of the temperature at the center of the test container is shown. It can be concluded that agreement between numerical and experimental data is well within experimental uncertainties.

Fig. 4. Comparison of the variation with time of the PCMs temperature for several thickness (a) 5 mm, (b) 10 mm and (c) 15 mm.

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10

Melting time (hr)

8 6 4 2 0 1 1.5 2

y = 1.5x + 0.3 R = 0.986

2.5 3

Mass of the PCM (Kg)

Fig. 5. The inuence of the amount of PCM lling the container on the melting time of PCM.

4. Results and discussion The dimension of the vessel containing PCM is 80 mm 160 mm mm. The air velocity is equal to 5 m/s and the temperature is assumed 27 C during the day and 19 C during the night. The thermodynamic properties of air, such as heat transfer coefcient between air and the walls of the vessel were obtained from Heat transfer, Incropera textbook. Thermodynamic properties of the PCMs are shown in Table 1. The temperature prole of each node of PCM during 24 h in three different thicknesses (5, 10 and 15 mm) is shown in Fig. 4. Fig. 4a is related to the PCM with the thickness of 5 mm which the PCM in this thickness experience completely both melting and freezing stages at 24 C. So that during the day, when its temperature reach to 24 C it starts to melt and after the completion of melting stage its temperature will reach to 27 C. In accordance with the assumption, its temperature starts to decrease at midnight. This decrease continues till it reaches to freezing point (24 C) and after the completion of freezing stage its temperature decreases to 19 C. Since, the increasing of the wall thickness of the PCMs lead to the augmentation in resisting against the heat transfer, PCMs cannot complete the temperature transformation. As it can be seen in Fig. 3b the temperature of PCMs with the thickness of 10 mm can rise just a little more than the melting temperature and when its thickness increase to 15 mm its temperature never become higher than 24 C. This event decreases the PCMs efciency in energy saving. Therefore, the type of usage and the range of the operating temperature should be considered in the selection of the proper thickness of PCMs, in order to reach to maximum energy saving. One of the most important parameters that should be considered in determination of the size and the shape of the vessel contains PCMs is melting period. The vessel should be proportional to total available liquid PCMs during the day. It means that, the PCMs should be designed in the manner that at the end of the day all the PCMs is melted and the maximum efciency of LHES unit can be obtained. Besides, complete melting of PCMs is a necessary condition for long-term (seasonal) energy saving. The effect of the amount of PCMs lled on the melting period is shown in Fig. 5. It can be seen that the more the amount of PCMs, the more the melting period. The results show that there was a signicant linear relationship between the mass of PCMs and the melting period. 5. Conclusion The purpose of this research was to providing a model for the PCMs used in the heat exchanger where a layer of PCMs

exchanges the heat with air passing through the exchanger. Since, during the day, air passing through is hot, it causes the PCMs to be melted, and during the night, because the temperature is low, the PCMs are frozen. The model was based on enthalpy formation which presented by numerical analysis. The model ran for one type of PCMs to verify the effect of the thickened of PCMs layer on its temperature changes, as well as the effect of its weight on melting time. The entire situation should be prepared that the PCMs complete the whole melting and freezing processes to have the maximum efciency during the day. Therefore, the thickness of the PCMs should be selected in a manner that all PCM should be able to be melted and frozen completely. The optimum thickness of the PCMs that veried in this research was 5 mm. Another point that should be considered in the design of the vessel containing the PCMs is melting time. It means that the vessel should be designed in order to let all the PCMs melt during the day. In fact, obtain the maximum heat from the air. The results of this study indicate a linear relationship between the mass of the PCM and the melting time. References
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