Abstract
Metal Foam-enhanced Cascaded Thermal Energy Storage (MF-CTES) has been proposed to solve the problem of poor heat transfer during heat exchange process, which is caused by unavoidable decrease of temperature differences. This paper conducts a theoretical study examining the overall thermal performance of Single-stage Thermal Energy Storage (STES), Cascaded Thermal Energy Storage (CTES) and MF-CTES, with both heat exchange rate and exergy efficiency being considered. The main findings are: heat exchange rate of STES is improved by CTES (up to 30%), and is further improved by MF-CTES (by 2–7 times); exergy efficiency of STES cannot be significantly improved by CTES (−15% to +30%), nor by MF-CTES; exergy transfer rate of STES is increased by CTES (up to 23%), and is further increased by MF-CTES (by 2–7 times).
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 86-96 |
| Number of pages | 11 |
| Journal | International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer |
| Volume | 58 |
| Issue number | 1-2 |
| Early online date | 7 Dec 2012 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Mar 2013 |
Keywords
- Metal foam; Heat transfer enhancement; Exergy; Cascaded Thermal Energy Storage; Brinkman–Forchheimer; Enthalpy method