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Energy and Exergy Analysis of a Concrete-Based Thermal Energy Storage System

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Abstract

Thermal energy storage system became an answer to store the intermittent solar energy in the recent time. In this study, regenerator-type sensible energy storage (SES) of 1 MJ capacity is developed for its application in the low-temperature region and hilly region like Meghalaya. Concrete and water are chosen as the substance to store energy and heat transfer fluid, respectively, owing to their suitable thermophysical properties. The influences of embedded tube diameter and pitch circle diameter (PCD) on the heat storage ratio and heat release ratio are investigated in the present study. Computational work is carried out using COMSOL Multiphysics software, and validation results show a good match with the published results in the literature. Upon optimizing the number of tubes in the preliminary study, 25 embedded tubes are considered for the further analysis. It is found that both the heat storage ratio and heat release ratio increase with increasing pitch circle diameter and embedded tubes diameter. At the same time, both the effective charging time and effective discharging time decrease with increasing pitch circle diameter and embedded tubes diameter. Finally, exergy analysis is performed for SES system. Maximum exergy factor is found in the case of tube arrangement at 6 cm PCD with 1.71 cm embedded tube diameter.

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Abbreviations

c p :

Specific heat (J/kgK)

D :

Diameter of the storage bed (cm)

d o :

Outside diameter of the tubes (cm)

k :

Thermal conductivity (W/mK)

L :

Length of storage bed (cm)

n :

Number of tubes (dimensionless)

Q :

Energy (J)

T :

Temperature (°C)

\(\rho\) :

Density (kg/m3)

\(\eta\) :

Efficiency (dimensionless)

ch:

Charging

con:

Concrete

dis:

Discharging

initial:

Initial condition

inlet:

Inlet condition

st:

Storage

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Acknowledgements

This paper is a revised and expanded version of an article entitled, “Computational Analysis of Sensible Energy Storage for Low Temperature Application,” Paper No., “128” of the conference “Recent Innovations and Developments in Mechanical Engineering” organized by Mechanical Engineering Department, NIT Meghalaya, Shillong.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Institute of Technology Silchar, Assam, 788010, India

    Sujit Roy, Biplab Das & Agnimitra Biswas

  2. National Institute of Technology Meghalaya, Shillong, 793003, India

    Biplab Kumar Debnath

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  1. Sujit Roy
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Roy, S., Das, B., Biswas, A. et al. Energy and Exergy Analysis of a Concrete-Based Thermal Energy Storage System. J. Inst. Eng. India Ser. C 101, 517–529 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40032-020-00564-9

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