Experimental and numerical studies of heat and mass transfer in low-temperature heat accumulator with phase transformations of accumulating material

Accumulation of thermal energy is produced with the aim of storing at certain times, when there is an overabundance of this energy and its further use in other periods of time when there is a deficit thermal energy. Thermal energy storage may be carried out under heating of any material (water, solid materials etc.) or by using the phase or chemical transformation of the material (melting and crystallization processes, direct and reverse chemical reaction). Thermal accumulators with phase or chemical transformations are allowed to concentrate a large amount of energy in a relatively small volume of accumulating material. In this paper an experimental study and numerical modeling of heat and mass transfer in the heat accumulator during phase transformations of the accumulating material are presented. The experimental plant consists of a chamber filled with paraffin. In experimental studies, the changes of the temperature distribution in heat accumulating material and tube bundles have investigated. Numerical simulation of melting and solidification of heat accumulating material during the heated and cooled of tube bundles were performed. As the results of research, the basic laws of melting and crystallization processes in heat accumulator during phase transformations of heat accumulating material were determined