The largest consumer of fresh water from natural resources in the US currently are the industrial cooling towers devoted to thermal power generation (for cooling of steam from turbine exhaust). As the energy demands are on the rise, the availability of water for the cooling purposes would be insufficient in the years to come. Dry cooling using air cooled heat exchangers is an alternative to wet cooling (i.e., by obviating cooling towers). However, this option results in reduced operational efficiency, higher costs (both for capital costs and operating costs) and reduced operational reliability. Thus, supplemental cooling using a form of Thermal Energy Storage (TES) platform is necessary to improve the reliability and feasibility of implementing dry cooling in regions with strained water resources. Thermal Energy Storage (TES) systems leveraging latent heat storage are widely studied owing to their nearly isothermal operation and higher energy storage capacity per unit mass in comparison to other sensible heat storage systems.

The objective of this study is to experimentally validate the numerical predictions for the thermal performance of a 3D Printed Shell and Tube Heat Exchanger loaded with PCM where the propagation of the solid-liquid interface (both melt and freeze fronts during thermocycling) are predicted by using computation fluid dynamics (CFD) tools. The scope of this study is limited to using an organic Phase Change Material (PCM). The thermal response and performance characteristics (e.g., power rating and HX effectiveness) of the Heat Exchanger is measured experimentally in order to ascertain their efficacy for melting and solidification of the PCM for different flow rates and inlet temperature values of the working fluid. The rate of propagation of the solid-liquid interface during both melting and solidification cycles is studied by monitoring temperature measurements recorded using strategically mounted array of thermocouples within the PCM. The working fluid is called the Heat Transfer Fluid (HTF). The HTF used in this study is water. The PCM used in this study is PureTemp 29 (commercially procured from Pure Temp Inc., Minneapolis, MN).


Experimental Validation of Numerical Prediction for the Thermal Performance of 3d Printed Shell and Tube Heat Exchanger Integrated With Phase Change Materials (Pcm) for Thermal Energy Storage (Tes) Using Computational Fluid Dynamics (Cfd)

Division / Sponsors: 
Heat Transfer Division (HTD), Fluids Engineering Division (FED)

Heat Transfer Summer Conference
Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/HT/HT2020/volume/83709

18th International Conference on Nanochannels, Microchannels, and Minichannels
Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/ICNMM/ICNMM2020/volume/83693

Fluids Engineering Division Summer Meeting
Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/FEDSM/FEDSM2020/volume/83716

HT-ICNMM2020 - Virtual Conference, SHTC - Virtual Conference, FEDSM2020 - Virtual Conference

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