Open AccessCompared Analysis of Calculation and Simulation on Heat Transfer Characteristics in PCM Heat Exchange Unit, Part II: Thermal Release Process
Author(s) -
Guizhi Xu,
Xiancheng Zhang,
Shaoming Liu,
Zhanfeng Deng,
Qing Zhao,
Meng Tang,
Changnian Chen
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of physics. conference series
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.21
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1742-6596
pISSN - 1742-6588
DOI - 10.1088/1742-6596/1419/1/012042
Subject(s) - fluent , volumetric flow rate , process (computing) , mechanics , heat transfer , thermal , matlab , flow (mathematics) , thermal energy storage , computer simulation , heat exchanger , channel (broadcasting) , phase change material , materials science , simulation , thermodynamics , computer science , engineering , physics , electrical engineering , operating system
In this part, the thermal release processes of PCM phase change in the same energy storage unit are analyzed, and the PCM unit model is the same as in Part I: channel number is 39, the plate spacing is 0.01 m, the air channel is 40 with its plate spacing of 0.003 m, and the unit length is total of 1.62 m. MATLAB solution about the above PCM energy storage unit was performed according to the model and physical property data, and the numerical simulation was carried out by using Fluent software as well. The theoretical calculation and numerical simulation were compared and analyzed. For the release process, it also can be seen that only in the case of smaller or larger flow rate working conditions, the solution results of MATLAB for the changing rate of the average temperature of the phase change material inside the system is quite different from the FLUENT simulation result; the total results are very similar to thermal storage process. When the flow rate is higher, the difference between the two results is even smaller than the release process; the comparison result of the PCM liquid rate is different under the small flow rate condition, and this is obvious for the release process, especially under the condition of small flow rate. However, also the maximum error does not exceed 10%. Conclusion can be drown that the flow rate conditions in the model and working conditions are the important factors for affecting the compared results, but the calculation and simulation results can more accurately describe the thermal release characteristics of the PCM phase change energy storage unit, which was calculated in nearly 90% ranges of working conditions, which furtherly illustrates the effectiveness of analytical method used in this paper.