Experimental Characterization of the Heat Transfer in a Latent Direct Contact Thermal Energy Storage with One Nozzle in Labor Scale

Abstract: Latent direct contact thermal energy storage presents a promising way of storing thermal energy within a compact unit at high charging and discharging levels of power. On the one hand, the unconventional technique of heat transfer for storing energy depends essentially on the design and the material properties and on the other hand, there are a small number of investigation published in the known literature. Based on basic experiments this paper discusses the fundamentals of the solidifying process by an upward droplet flow through the storage. Because of constant availability in high quality, water is chosen as storage material. The heat transfer fluid consists of thermal-oil with a low viscosity. The measurements includes the history of temperatures in addition to the mass flow of the heat transfer fluid out of seven experiment runs. Out of this data the thermal power is analyzed over the time and associated to the state of solidification. Simultaneously the findings of the experimental characterization contains the description of the power performance by dimensionless parameters as well as the discussion of the temperature distribution inside the storage tank.