SEMINAR REPORT

ON HEAT PIPE HEAT EXCHANGER WITH LATENT HEAT STORAGE

Presented by SENTHIL.R (M070196ME) THERMAL SCIENCES

Department of Mechanical Engineering NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY CALICUT CALICUT -673601, KERALA WINTER 2007-08

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that this seminar report entitled Heat pipe heat exchanger with latent heat storage is a bonafide record of the seminar presented by SENTHIL .R, Reg. No M070196ME during the winter semester 2007-2008 in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award of M. Tech degree in Mechanical Engineering by the National Institute of Technology, Calicut.

Faculty in charge of Seminar

Dr.A.Ramaraju Professor

Dr. C.B.Sobhan Professor Department Of Mechanical Engineering National Institute Of Technology, Calicut

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the faculty of The Department of Mechanical Engineering for their kind cooperation to my seminar topic. I especially express my gratitude to Dr.A.Ramaraju and Dr. C.B.Sobhan for their able guidance on the subject. I also wish to thank all my friends for their kind co-operation

CONTENTS PAGE NO: ABSTRACT 1. INTRODUCTION 2. ENERGY STORAGE METHODS 3. PHASE CHANGE MATERIALS 4. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE AND SETUP 5. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 5.1. Charging only operation performance 5.2. Discharging only operation performance 5.3. Simultaneous charging/discharging performance 6. CONCLUSION REFERENCES 4 6 6 9 15 16 16 25 30 31 32

ABSTRACT
A new thermal storage system, a heat pipe heat exchanger with latent heat storage, is discussed. The new thermal system, a heat exchanger which have a bunch of heat pipes, have a provision for energy storage and may operate in three basic different operation modes, the charging only, the discharging only and the simultaneous charging/discharging modes, which makes the system suitable for various time and/or weather dependent energy systems. In this section, the basic structure, the working principle and the design concept are briefly discussed. An brief introduction about the phase change materials, which stores thermal energy as latent heat, were also discussed. Extensive experimental results are presented of the charging only and discharging only operations and the effects of the inlet temperature and the flow rate of the cold/ hot water were also discussed. The results show that the heat exchanger performs the designed functions very well and can both store and release the thermal energy efficiently.

Nomenclature
mc mh Cp Ti Tf Mass of cold fluid in kg. Mass of hot fluid in kg. Specific heat of the fluid. Initial temperature of the fluid Final temperature of the fluid

Tm Melting point of PCMQ Amount of heat transfer Th Temperature of hot fluid Tc Temperature of cold fluid Tpcm Temperature of PCM hm Change in enthalpy of the medium ar Rw Fraction of PCM melted Thermal conduction resistance of the heat pipe wall

Rhh Convection resistance between the hot water and the heat pipe wall Rhc Convection resistance between the heat pipe wall and the cold water RHP Axial thermal resistance of the heat pipe Rfh Rch Rh Rc Thermal resistance between the heat pipe and the working fluid in hot fluid Thermal resistance between the heat pipe and the working fluid in cold fluid Resistance on hot fluid side Resistance on cold fluid side

1.INTRODUCTION
The storage of energy in suitable forms, which can conventionally be converted into the required form, is a present day challenge to the technologists. Energy storage not only reduces the mismatch between supply and demand but also improves the performance and reliability of energy systems and plays an important role in conserving the energy. It leads to saving of premium fuels and makes the system more cost effective by reducing the wastage of energy and capital cost. For example, storage would improve the performance of a power generation plant by load leveling and higher efficiency would lead to energy conservation and lesser generation cost. Latent thermal energy storage system that could be used for smoothing daily load profiles consisted of narrow vertical parallel plates of PCM separated by rectangular flow passages. In order to enhance the heat transfer process between the PCM and the working fluid, various capsules packed bed latent heat storage systems have also been proposed.

2. ENERGY STORAGE METHODS

Types of energy storage methods are given below. The different forms of energy that can be stored include mechanical, electrical and thermal energy. One of prospective techniques of storing thermal energy is the application of phase change materials (PCMs). The use of a latent heat storage system using phase change materials (PCMs) is an effective way of storing thermal energy and has the advantages of highenergy storage density and the isothermal nature of the storage process. 2.1. Mechanical energy storage Mechanical energy storage systems include gravitational energy storage or pumped hydropower storage (PHPS), compressed air energy storage (CAES) and flywheels. The PHPS and CAES technologies can be used for large-scale utility energy storage while flywheels are more suitable for intermediate storage. Storage is carried out when inexpensive off-peak power is available, e.g., at night or weekends. The storage is discharged when power is needed because of insufficient supply from the base-load plant.

2.2. Electrical storage Energy storage through batteries is an option for storing the electrical energy. A battery is charged, by connecting it to a source of direct electric current and when it is discharged, the stored chemical energy is converted into electrical energy. Potential applications of batteries are utilization of off-peak power, load leveling, and storage of electrical energy generated by wind turbine or photovoltaic plants. The most common type of storage batteries is the lead acid and NiCd. 2.3. Thermal energy storage Thermal energy storage can be stored as a change in internal energy of a material as sensible heat, latent heat and thermochemical or combination of these. An overview of major technique of storage of solar thermal energy is shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 1. Different types of thermal energy storage. 2.3.1. Sensible heat storage: In sensible heat storage (SHS), thermal energy is stored by raising the temperature of a solid or liquid. SHS system utilizes the heat capacity and the change in temperature of the material during the process. The amount of heat stored depends on the specific heat of the medium, the temperature change and the amount of storage material.

Amount of heat energy stored is given by, Q = mCp(Tf - Ti) The sensible heat storage capacity of some selected solidliquid materials is shown in Table 1.

Table 1: list of solidliquid materials for sensible heat storage 2.3.2. Latent heat storage: Latent heat storage (LHS) is based on the heat absorption or release when a storage material undergoes a phase change from solid to liquid or liquid to gas or vice versa. The storage capacity of the LHS system with a PCM(Phase Change Material) medium is given by Q = m[Csp(Tm - Ti) + amhm + Clp(Tf - Tm)] 2.4. Thermochemical energy storage. Thermochemical systems rely on the energy absorbed and released in breaking and reforming molecular bonds in a completely reversible chemical reaction. In this case, the heat stored depends on the amount of storage material, the endothermic heat of reaction, and the extent of conversion. Q = armhr Amongst above thermal heat storage techniques, latent heat thermal energy storage is particularly attractive due to its ability to provide high-energy storage density and its characteristics to store heat at constant temperature corresponding to the phase-transition temperature of phase change material (PCM). Phase change can be in the following form: solid solid, solidliquid, solidgas, liquidgas and vice versa.

In solidsolid transitions, heat is stored as the material is transformed from one crystalline to another. These transitions generally have small latent heat and small volume changes than solid liquid transitions. Solidsolid PCMs offer the advantages of less stringent container requirements and greater design flexibility. Solidgas and liquidgas transition through have higher latent heat of phase transition but their large volume changes on phase transition are associated with the containment problems and rule out their potential utility in thermal-storage systems. Large changes in volume make the system complex and impractical. Solidliquid transformations have comparatively smaller latent heat than liquidgas. However, these transformations involve only a small change in volume. Solidliquid transitions have proved to be economically attractive for use in thermal energy storage systems. PCMs themselves cannot be used as heat transfer medium. A separate heat transfer medium must me employed to transfer energy with heat exchanger between one fluid and the PCM. The heat exchanger to be used has to be designed specially, in view of the low thermal diffusivity of PCMs and volume changes. Any latent heat energy storage system therefore, possess at least following three components: (i) a suitable PCM with its melting point in the desired temperature range, (ii) a suitable heat exchange surface, and (iii) a suitable container compatible with the PCM. The development of a latent heat thermal energy storage system hence, involves the understanding of three essential subjects: phase change materials, containers materials and heat exchangers.

3. PHASE CHANGE MATERIALS

Phase change materials (PCM) are Latent heat storage materials. The thermal energy transfer occurs when a material changes from solid to liquid, or liquid to solid. This is calleda change in state, or Phase. Initially, these solidliquid PCMs perform like conventional storage materials, their temperature rises as they absorb heat. Unlike conventional (sensible) storage materials, PCM absorbs and release heat at a nearly constant temperature. They store 514 times more heat per unit volume than sensible storage materials such as water, masonry, or rock. A 9

large number of PCMs are known to melt with a heat of fusion in any required range. However, for their employment as latent heat storage materials these materials must exhibit certain desirable thermodynamic, kinetic and chemical properties which are as follows: 3.1. Thermal properties (i) Suitable phase-transition temperature. (ii) High latent heat of transition. (iii) Good heat transfer. Selecting a PCM for a particular application, the operating temperature of the heating or cooling should be matched to the transition temperature of the PCM. The latent heat should be as high as possible, especially on a volumetric basis, to minimize the physical size of the heat store. High thermal conductivity would assist the charging and discharging of the energy storage. 3.2. Physical properties (i) Favorable phase equilibrium. (ii) High density. (iii) Small volume change. (iv) Low vapor pressure. Phase stability during freezing melting would help towards setting heat storage and high density is desirable to allow a smaller size of storage container. Small volume changes on phase transformation and small vapor pressure at operating temperatures to reduce the containment problem. 3.3. Kinetic properties (i) No supercooling. (ii) Sufficient crystallization rate. 3.4. Chemical properties (i) Long-term chemical stability. (ii) Compatibility with materials of construction. (iii) No toxicity. (iv) No fire hazard.

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3.5. Economics (i) Abundant. (ii) Available. (iii) Cost effective. Low cost and large-scale availability of the phase change materials is also very important. Some popular phase change materials are given below.

Table 2 : List of phase change materials and their properties One major issue that needs to be addressed is that most phase-change materials (PCM) with high energy storage density have an unacceptably low thermal conductivity and hence heat transfer enhancement techniques are required for any latent heat thermal storage (LHTS) applications. To increase the heat transfer rate in the heat exchanger, between the fluid and PCM, it uses a set of heat pipes. This equipment is what we call as heat pipe heat exchanger. In a latent heat thermal storage (LHTS) system, during phase change the solidliquid interface moves away from the heat transfer surface. During this process, the surface heat flux decreases due to the increasing thermal resistance of the growing layer of the molten/ solidified medium. In the case of solidification, conduction is the sole transport mechanism, and in the case

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of melting, natural convection occurs in the melt layer and this generally increases the heat transfer rate compared to the solidification process. This decrease of the heat transfer rate calls for the usage of proper heat transfer enhancement techniques in the LHTS systems. So some fins are attached to the surface of the heat pipe. A new thermal storage system, a heat pipe heat exchanger with latent heat storage system may operate in three basic different operation modes, the charging only, the discharging only and the simultaneous charging/discharging modes, which makes the system suitable for various time dependent energy systems.Latent TES is receiving more and more attention because of its large energy storage density and the significant reduction in storage volume and, most importantly, the isothermal behavior during the charging and discharging process compared with sensible heat storage systems. Hence, latent thermal energy storage is widely used in the conversion and utilization of renewable energies, and in various heat recovery systems. we can see, all these latent thermal energy storage devices use the wall of the heat transfer fluid passage as the heat transfer surface of the PCM. This means the heat transfer area on the PCM side is completely determined by the heat transfer area on the working fluid side, although these two heat transfer areas may not be equal. However, as we know, most PCMs are poor heat conduction media, and therefore, the dominant thermal resistances in the heat transfer process between the PCM and the working fluid is on the PCM side. Therefore, according to heat transfer theory, the most efficient way for improving the heat transfer process is to enhance the heat transfer on the PCM side. Various methods for PCM thermal conductivity enhancement have been proposed and studied by many researchers. Some of the most common methods are attaching fins to heat transfer walls, dispersing metal particles or rings or carbon fibers of high conductivity into PCMs, etc. However, the most direct and also the most efficient way is to increase the heat transfer area on the PCM side. This is usually impossible or results in a large increase in the pressure drop of the working fluid and a large decrease in the effective PCM storage volume for conventional latent thermal energy storage systems due to the increased length of the flow passages of the working fluid. This difficulty may be removed by introducing heat pipes with longitudinal into the thermal energy storage unit.

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A heat pipe heat exchanger with latent heat thermal storage has many advantages over the above mentioned conventional devices. Because the heat transfer areas on the hot fluid side, the cold fluid side and the PCM side can be designed independently, the PCM side heat transfer area can be set at any desired value, at least theoretically. This is one of the most important features of the heat pipe heat exchanger with latent heat thermal energy storage.

Fig. 2. A heat pipe heat exchanger with latent heat thermal storage Fig. 2 presents the systematic configuration of a heat pipe heat exchanger with latent heat thermal storage. The heat exchanger consists mainly of four parts. The hot fluid flow passage (6), the PCM chamber (7) and the cold fluid flow passage (5) are connected by a number of heat pipes (3). The phase change material (8) is stored in the PCM chamber. In order to enhance the heat transfer process, annular fins made of pure copper are attached to the heat pipes. As one can see from the figure, the sizes of the hot fluid flow passage, the PCM chamber and the cold fluid passage can be designed independently, which presents one of the major advantages over other latent heat thermal storage systems. The charging only mode is where the hot fluid flows through the hot fluid flow passage, the heat is transferred through the heat pipes to the PCM to melt the PCM and the energy is stored in the PCM as the latent and/or sensible heat. Under this operation mode, the evaporation

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section of the heat pipes is the part in the hot fluid flow passage, and the condensation section is the part in the PCM chamber. The discharging only mode is where the cold fluid flows through the cold fluid flow passage and receives the heat that is extracted from the PCM by the heat pipes. Under this operation mode, the evaporation section of the heat pipes is the part in the PCM chamber, and the condensation section is the part in the cold fluid flow passage. The simultaneous charging and discharging mode is where both the hot and cold fluids flow through their corresponding flow passages. There are two possible sub-operation modes under this mode: Fluid to fluid heat transfer with discharging heat from the PCM is when both the hot fluid and the PCM release heat to the cold fluid. Under this mode, both parts of the heat pipes, that in the hot fluid flow passage and that in the PCM chamber, may play the role of the evaporator of the heat pipes, and the part of the heat pipes in the cold fluid flow passage is the condenser. Fluid to fluid heat transfer with charging heat to the PCM is when the hot fluid releases heat to both the cold fluid and the PCM. Under this mode, both parts of the heat pipes, that in the cold fluid flow passage and that in the PCM chamber, act as the heat pipe condenser, and the part of the heat pipes in the hot fluid flow passage is the heat pipe evaporator. In addition, there is still another possible operation mode theoretically in which the state of the PCM is unchanged, and the heat released from the hot fluid is all transferred to the cold fluid through the heat pipes. In order to study the performance of this kind of heat pipe exchangers and its feasibility, we considered heat exchanger of dimensions 1000 x 500 x 120 mm. Five gravity heat pipes run through the hot fluid flow passage, the PCM chamber and the cold fluid flow passage. The heat pipes are 28 mm in external diameter and 950 mm in length and are made of pure copper. The working fluid of the heat pipes is acetone. Because of the variable evaporator size that is needed for realizing the functions of the heat exchanger, the amount of working fluid is much bigger than that in conventional heat pipes. In order to enhance the heat transfer processes, circumferential copper fins 27 mm long and 0.4 mm thick are used for the PCM chamber, and the same fins with a length of 14 mm are used for the hot and cold passages. The fin pitch is 5 mm. Fig. 3 depicts the dimensions of the heat exchanger and the locations of the thermocouples in the PCM. The PCM used is an industrial paraffin wax. The melting point is 52.10C, and the latent heat is 132.4 kJ/kg. The quantity of PCM used in the heat exchanger is 25.1 kg, and thus, the estimated energy storage in the form of latent heat is about 3300 kJ.

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Fig.3. Dimensions of the heat pipe heat exchanger and the thermocouple distribution in thePCM.

4. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP AND PROECDURE

In order to evaluate the performance of our heat pipe heat exchanger with latent heat storage, an experimental system was set up, as shown in Fig. 4. The system consists of the heat pipe heat exchanger (2), a low temperature bath (10) that can provide water of a temperature as low as 50C, a high temperature bath (1) that can provide water of a temperature as high as 950C, a HP 34970A data logger (3), two LZB-15 flow meters (5), a personal computer (4), two circulation pumps (8) and several valves (6) that are used for controlling the flow rate and direction. There are 48 T-type thermocouples (7) in total. To measure the water temperatures at the outlets and the inlets of the heat exchanger, 2 thermocouples are used. Forty thermocouples are used to measure the temperature distribution of the PCM. Their locations are given in Fig. 3. In Fig. 3(a), the horizontal locations of the five thermocouples that are at the same vertical position are 14, 31, 41, 48 and 55 mm from the axis line of the heat pipe, the vertical locations are the same as that indicated in Fig. 3(b). Allthe pipings in the experimental system are well insulated by applying a porous polythene insulator of a thickness of 80 mm.

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Fig. 4. Schematic diagram of the experimental system. Prior to starting the charging, discharging or charging/discharging experiments of the heat exchanger, the PCM in the PCM chamber is heated or cooled by circulating the cold water or the hot water to the desired uniform temperature. After that, the charging only experiments were started by turning off the cold water loop (the cold water flow passage was also emptied) and turning on the hot water loop. The discharging only experiments were started by turning off the hot water loop (the hot water flow passage was also emptied) and turning on the cold water loop. The simultaneous charging and discharging experiments were realized by turning on both the hot and cold water loop. The experiments were performed with different inlet temperatures and different flowrates of the circulation water and the performance of heat pipe heat exchanger is analyzed here.

5. REULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

5.1. Charging only operation performance 5.1.1. Performance of the heat pipes Although the heat pipes used in the unit have the same structure and working principles as conventional heat pipes, their operation modes are quite different from the conventional ones. They have much more working fluid than the conventional heat pipes, and the evaporation and condensation areas are variable according to their applied working conditions. Therefore, it is of basic importance to make sure that these heat pipes do work and provide the functions for which

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they are designed. The experiments shows that the heat pipes used in our heat exchangers can function properly and effectively. Fig. 5 depicts the measured wall temperature variation of the heat pipe with time with a hot water flow rate of 3.33 kg/min and a hot water inlet temperature of 800C, and Fig. 6 presents the heat pipe wall temperature distribution along the axial direction of the heat pipe at different times.

Fig.5. Heat pipe wall temperature variation with time at different vertical positions z = 140, 280, 420, 560 and 720 mm at 14 mm from the axis of the heat pipe.

Fig.6. Wall temperature profile along the heat pipe length at various times. Charging only mode: TPCM,0 = 28.50C, Th = 800C, mh = 3.33 kg/min.

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From these two figures, we can see that during the early stage of the charging process of the heat exchanger, the heat transferred from the hot water to the heat pipe evaporator is mainly used to heat the walls of the heat pipes and, thus, to raise the temperature of the heat pipes, which explains the rapid raise of the heat pipe wall temperature during this period. However, as soon as the wall temperature is higher than the PCM temperature, some of the heat is transferred to heat the PCM that surrounds the heat pipe, and this part of the heat increases with the heat pipe wall temperature. Therefore, the wall temperature increase rate slows as the process continues. Actually, the wall temperature approaches a constant as soon as the preheating period of the PCM (from its initial temperature of 28.50C to its melting point) ends and melting starts. It should also be noted that during the whole process, the temperature difference across the length of the heat pipe is very small, usually less than 10C, which is the typical characteristic of heat pipes and proves its excellent temperature leveling ability and fast transient thermal response. 5.1.2. Melting curves and phase change interfaces Fig. 7 is one group of the typical melting curves at different radial positions. During the initial period of heating, the PCM absorbs and stores the energy transferred by the heat pipe from the hot water in the form of sensible heat. This heat is used to raise the temperature of the PCM gradually to its melting point. As soon as TC6 (the wall temperature of the heat pipe) is higher than the melting point, the melting process starts. Before melting takes place, the heat transfer through the PCM is pure conduction, and the temperature increases almost linearly with time. Because of the low thermal conductivity of the PCM, the temperature near the heat pipe increases very quickly. However, after the temperature of the PCM reaches its melting point and the melting process starts, the temperature increase rate of the PCM is significantly slowed. The heat absorbed by the phase change interface is equal to the energy stored as latent heat plus the heat transferred to its neighbor region. It is this mechanism that causes the different trends of temperature variations at the different locations. For instance, the temperature of thermocouple TC10 almost increases linearly with time during the whole process, which is quite different from TC6 that has an apparent constant temperature period. This is because TC10 is located at the symmetrical position of the two neighboring heat pipes, which is an adiabatic surface.

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Fig. 7. PCM temperature versus time at the different radial positions from the axis of the heat pipe at z = 140 mm. Charging only mode: TPCM,0 = 28.40C, Th = 80.10C, mh = 2.50 kg/min. Therefore, the heat transferred from the inner side to it is all stored and, thus, raises its temperature. TC7 is the only thermocouple that is located in the region of the fins. From Fig. 6, one can see the temperature difference between TC6 and TC7 is much smaller than the temperature difference of the other thermocouples. This proves that the fins attached to the heat pipe enhanced the heat transfer process between the heat pipe and the PCM effectively.

Fig. 8. Temperature distribution of the PCM at 90 min. Charging only mode: TPCM,0 = 28.40C, Th = 80.10C, mh = 2.50 kg/min.

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Fig. 8 shows the temperature distribution of the PCM at 90 min under the experimental conditions of a hot water inlet temperature of 80.1 0C, a hot water flow rate of 2.5 kg/min and the initial PCM temperature of 28.40C. From this figure, we can find that the temperature variation along the axial direction of the heat pipe is much smaller than that along the radial direction, which again proves that the heat pipe has a very good temperature leveling ability and a very small thermal resistance in the axial direction. It can also be seen from the figure that within the influence region of the fins, the temperature profile is much more uniform than in the other region, both in the radial and the axial directions, the slopes of the temperature surface along the radial direction and the axial direction between r = 14 and 31 mm are much smaller than that of the other regions. This again proves that the fins are effective in enhancing the heat transfer process.

Fig. 9. Phase interface position at different times. Charging only mode: TPCM,0 = 28.50C, Th = 800C, mh = 3.33 kg/min. Fig. 9 depicts the liquidsolid interfaces at various times. Using linear interpolation, the interface position is deduced from the temperature measurements on the assumption that the phase change takes place at a single melting temperature (52.10C). The shape of these liquid solid interfaces generally agrees with our common knowledge: the region that is near the hot water passage (larger z region) melts faster than the region far away from the hot water passage (smaller z region). It can also be seen from Fig. that the distance in the radial direction between 20

any two neighboring interfaces generally decreases with r. Since the time intervals between any two neighboring interfaces are equal, therefore, this fact proves that the interface migration velocity decreases with r and, thus, with time. This, in reality, reflects the fact that as the process proceeds, the melted region increases and so does the radius of the melted region around the heat pipe. The same increment of melted region in the r direction at larger r needs more PCM to be melted than at smaller r. Actually, by applying a simple energy balance analysis to the melting front, one can prove that the interface migration velocity is simply in inverse proportion to r if a constant heating power is presumed. Therefore, the reduction in the interface migration velocity mainly results from this geometrical effect, and hence, although the PCM melting rate should decrease with time due to the decrease of the temperature difference between the heat pipe wall temperature and the PCM, this reduction should be smaller than that in the interface migration velocity. 5.1.3. Influence of the hot water inlet temperature As one may expect, the hot water inlet temperature should have a very strong influence on the charging operation processes. Therefore, a large number of experiments were conducted to study this influence.

Fig. 10. Influences of the hot water inlet temperature on the charging only process: (At TC6, TPCM,0 = 28.30C, mh = 2.50 kg/min).

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Figs. 10 and 11 summarize some of the typical results and depict the influences of the hot water inlet temperature on the history of the heat pipe wall temperature and on the PCM temperature variation, respectively. It is shown from these figures that the inlet temperature of the hot water has a very strong and direct influence. This is because, under the same initial temperature and flow rate conditions, the overall heat transfer coefficient from the hot water to the PCMis basically a constant, and therefore, the heat flow from the hot water to the PCM (via the heat pipes) is directly proportional to the temperature difference between the hot water and the PCM.

Fig. 11. Influences of the hot water inlet temperature on the charging only process: PCM temperature at TC9 (TPCM,0 = 28.30C, mh = 2.50 kg/min). Since the initial PCM temperature is the same in these experiments, therefore the heat flow is indirect proportion to the inlet temperature of the hot water to a great extent. We may further conclude the melting completion time should, thus, also decrease directly with the inlet temperature increase. Our experimental results prove this deduction: the time for completion of melting for the inlet temperature of 700C is 251 min, for 800C, this value is reduced to 149 min and for 900C, itis only 121 min. The melting completion time of the hot water inlet temperature of 900C is, thus, only 48% of that of 700C, which means a reduction of 52% (note that the initial inlet temperature difference, that is, the inlet temperature of the hot water minus the initial PCM

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temperature was changed from 41.7 to 61.70C by increasing the inlet temperature from 70 to 900C, which means an increase of 48% in the initial temperature difference). 5.1.4. Influences of the hot water flow rate Increasing the hot water flow rate will enhance the heat transfer process between the hot water and the wall of the evaporator section of the heat pipe, and therefore, the hot water flow rates should also influence the charging processes.

Fig. 12. Influences of the hot water flow rate on the charging only process: heat pipe wall temperature at TC6(TPCM,0 = 28.2 _C, Th = 80.1 _C).

Fig. 13. Influences of the hot water flow rate on the charging only process: PCM temperature at TC9 (TPCM,0 =28.2 _C, Th = 80.1 _C).

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Figs. 12 and 13 depict the influences of the hot water flow rate on the heat pipe wall temperature and on the PCM temperature, respectively. From these two figures, we can see the flow rate does produce a significant influence on the process, and both the temperature of the heat pipe wall and the temperature of the PCM increase monotonously with the flow rate. As the flow rate increases from 0.83 to 3.33 kg/min, the melting completion time is reduced from 189 to 144 min, which indicates a reduction of 24%. Apparently, compared with the inlet temperature, the influences of the flow rate are much weaker. This may be explained as follows. We all know from basic heat transfer theory that increasing the flow rate can only improve the convection heat transfer between the hot water and the wall of the evaporator section of the heat pipe, and the thermal resistance of this convection heat transfer process is less important than the thermal conduction resistance of the PCM due to the very small thermal conductivity of the PCM. Furthermore, according to convection heat transfer theory, the convection heat transfer coefficient is directly proportional to the nth power of the flow rate, where n is a constant less than unity and within 0.4 and 0.8 for our unit under the experimental flow conditions. This also contributes to the weak effects of the flow rate on the process. From Figs. 12 and 13, we can also note that the influence of the flow rate is less apparent in the initial period than in the longer time period. As has been mentioned earlier, the PCM has a small thermal conductivity, and thus, the solid PCM in the initial state should present a very large thermal resistance. Therefore, this thermal resistance is the dominant one in the overall heat transfer process from the hot water to the PCM. Thus, reducing the less important thermal resistance of the convection heat transfer process between the hot water and the heat pipe wall will not significantly improve the overall heat transfer process. However, as the process proceeds, more and more PCM is melted and natural convection within the melted PCM gradually plays a role, and this results in a decrease in the thermal resistance of the PCM. Of course, the decrease in the thermal resistance of the PCM increases the relative importance of the convection thermal resistance between the heat pipe wall and the hot water in the overall heat transfer proc ss, which results in a more apparent influence of the flow rate compared with that in the initial period.

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5.2. Discharging only operation performance The discharging only operation experiments were conducted under various conditions. The inlet temperature of the cold water was from 10 to 300C, and the flow rate of the cold water was from 0.83 to 3.33 kg/min. As has been already mentioned in the previous section, in order to perform the discharging only operation experiments, the PCM was first heated to a given temperature (usually well higher than the melting point of the PCM) by circulating the hot water for 3 to 4 hours. Then, after the PCM reached its given uniform temperature and the whole system was steady, the hot water circulation was stopped. As soon as the hot water was evacuated from the hot water passage, the cold water was started to circulate in the cold water loop and the experiment starts. 5.2.1. Solidification curves and discharging characteristics The discharging only operation is actually a solidification process of the PCM that results from the heat pipe cooling. In this operation mode, the section of the heat pipes that is buried in the PCM is the evaporator.

Fig. 14. PCM temperature vs time at different radial positions from the axis of the heat pipe at z=140 mm:discharging only mode TPCM,0 = 760C,Tc = 170C,mc = 1.67 kg/min).

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Fig. 14 presents a group of typical solidification curves that were obtained in various discharging only mode experiments. From this figure, we can see that the PCM was cooled very quickly from the liquid to the solid state, and therefore, the mode is a typical solidification process. The solidification curves can be divided into three different regions, the initial region, the solidification region and the cooling region. In the initial region, the liquid PCM is cooled to its melting point, and the heat recovered by the cold water is, therefore, mainly the sensible heat of the liquid PCM. Since the sensible heat is much smaller than the latent heat, the decreasing rate of the PCM temperature is faster in this period than in the other periods. After that, when solidification takes place, the process gets into the second stage, and the temperature of the PCM decreases much slower than in the initial period due to the latent heat releasing effect. Of course, after the solidification of the PCM is completed, the heat recovered by the cold water is again the sensible heat of the PCM, and this certainly speeds up the decreasing of the PCM temperature. It should also be noted that the temperature difference between TC10 and TC6 first increases and then decreases with time. To show this more clearly, Fig. 15 depicts the temperature profile along the radial direction at various times. At the very beginning of the process, the PCM is in the liquid state, and therefore, the effective conductivity of the PCM is well enhanced by the natural convection within the PCM. This and the initial uniform temperature certainly causes a uniform temperature distribution along the radial direction in the early stage of the process. However, as the process proceeds, solidification of the PCM finally commences. Solidification of the PCM not only restrains the natural convection but also produces a solid PCM layer of low thermal conductivity on the heat pipe. Therefore, the temperature gradient in the radial direction increases with time. This tendency continues until the process approaches its final steady state as the PCM temperature approaches the cold water temperature. After that, the temperature gradient in the radial direction decreases with time, which means, as we can understand, that the system will finally acquire its new steady state with a new uniform temperature distribution after a long enough running time.

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Fig. 15. PCM temperature profiles in the radial direction at the different times. Discharging only mode: TPCM,0 =76 _C, Tc = 17 _C, mc = 1.67 kg/min. From Fig. 15, one can see that the temperature profile of the finned region (near the heat pipe wall,) in the radial direction is more even than that in the region r > 31 mm. This proves that the fins on the heat pipes do enhance the heat transfer process as expected. Fig. 16 displays the temperature distribution of the PCM at 60 min, which further proves the effectiveness of the fins in enhancing the heat transfer process.

Fig. 16. Temperature distribution of the PCM at 60 min. Discharging only mode: TPCM,0 = 76 _C, Tc = 17 _C,mc = 2.50 kg/min. 27

5.2.2. Influences of the inlet temperature and the flow rate of the cold water. As in the charging only operation, the inlet temperature and the flow rate of the cold water will affect the performance of the heat pipe heat exchanger. Figs. 17 depicts the influences of the cold water inlet temperature on the discharging process.

Fig. 17. Influences of cold water inlet temperature on the discharging only : heat pipe wall temperature atTC6 (TPCM,0 = 75.70C, mc = 2.5 kg/min). It can be seen from these figures that the inlet temperature of the cold water has an important influence. The reason for this is the same as for the charging only operation as it is stated in Section 4.1.3. That is, under the same initial temperature and flow rate conditions, the overall heat transfer coefficient from the cold water to the PCM is basically a constant, and therefore, the heat flow from the PCM to the cold water (via the heat pipes) is directly proportional to the temperature difference between the PCM and the cold water temperature. Lowering the inlet temperature of the cold water means increasing the temperature difference and, therefore, enhances the whole heat transfer process. The solidification completion time should, thus, also decrease with decreasing inlet temperature. For example, the time for completion of solidification for the inlet temperature of 250C is 155 min, for 170C, this value is reduced to 132 min and for 100C, it is only 118 min. The solidification completion time of the cold water inlet temperature of 100C is, thus, only 76% of that of 250C, which means a reduction of 24% (note that the initial inlet temperature difference, 28

i.e., the initial PCM temperature minus the inlet temperature of the cold water was changed from 50.7 to 65.70C by decreasing the inlet temperature from 25 to 100C, which means an increase of 30% in the initial temperature difference).

Fig. 18. Influences of the cold water flow rate on the discharging only process: heat pipe wall temperature at TC6(TPCM,0 = 75.50C, Tc = 250C). Figs. 18 present the influences of the cold water flow rate on the heat pipe wall temperature and on the PCM temperature, respectively. From these two figures, we can see the flow rate also produces a certain influence on the process, and both the temperature of the heat pipe wall and the temperature of the PCM decrease monotonously with the flow rate. As the flow rate increases from 0.83 to 3.33 kg/min, the solidification completion time is reduced from 177 to 146 min, which indicates a reduction of 17.5%. It is worthwhile to mention that the influence of the inlet temperature and the flow rate is stronger on the charging only process than on the discharging only process. This is because of the so called sequence effects of insulation materials1 and the restrained natural convection. As time elapses, the natural convection effect is becoming weaker in the discharging only mode, whereas this effect is becoming stronger in the charging only mode. Furthermore, the PCM that is in solid state has a smaller effective conductivity than that in the liquid state. Therefore, the equivalent thermal resistance on the PCM side, which is always

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the dominant term of the overall thermal resistance of the heat transfer process from the hot or cold water to the PCM, is bigger during the discharging only operation than the charging only operation. It is due to this increased PCM side thermal resistance of the discharging only operation compared with that of the charging only operation that results in its less sensitive reaction to the change of the flow rate and the inlet temperature. 5.3 Simultaneous charging/discharging modes. The resistance circuit for Simultaneous charging/discharging modes can be drawn as shown in the fig. 19.

Fig. 19. Equivalent thermal circuit for the heat pipe exchanger with latent heat storage. Analyzing the above circuit, we arrive at the condition for classifying whether the given simultaneous charging/discharging process is a fluid to fluid heat transfer process with charging heat to the PCM or the PCM is releasing heat, and therefore, the process is a fluid to fluid heat transfer process with discharging heat from the PCM.

Where,

If the above given equation is satisfied then the PCM is receiving heat, and therefore, the process is a fluid to fluid heat transfer process with charging heat to the PCM. Otherwise, if

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equation is not satisfied, then the PCM is releasing heat, and therefore, the process is a fluid to fluid heat transfer process with discharging heat from the PCM.

6. CONCLUSION
Using heat pipes as the heat transfer elements that run through the hot fluid passage, the PCM chamber and the cold fluid passage, a new latent heat thermal storage system has been developed. It has many advantages over other thermal energy storage devices. The heat transfer surface areas for the hot fluid, for the PCM and for the cold fluid may be designed independently, which permits one to enhance the overall heat transfer process more efficiently by the rational design of each heat transfer surface. The system can be operated in different modes: the charging only, the discharging only and the simultaneous charging/discharging modes. This more flexible operation makes it suitable for systems of time and/or weather dependent energy, especially solar energy and other renewable energies. The experimental results on the charging only mode and the discharging only mode of the system show that the new device performs the designed functions very well. It can both store and release the thermal energy efficiently. Therefore, the device can be used as a conventional system in which the charging and discharging are operated independently. Experimental show that the inlet temperature of the cold/hot fluid has a stronger influence on the discharging/charging process than the flow rate.

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REFERENCES 1. Zhongliang Liu , Zengyi Wang, Chongfang Ma, An experimental study on heat transfer characteristics of heat pipe heat exchanger with latent heat storage. Part I: Charging only and discharging only modes, Energy Conversion and Management 47 (2006) 944966 2. Zhongliang Liu , Zengyi Wang, Chongfang Ma, An experimental study on heat transfer characteristics of heat pipe heat exchanger with latent heat storage. Part I: Charging only and discharging only modes, Energy Conversion and Management 47 (2006) 967991 3. Atul Sharma, V. Tyagi, C.R. Chen, D. Buddhi, Review on thermal energy storage withphase change materials and applications, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 1 (2007) 4. H. Hagens , F.L.A. Ganzevles , C.W.M. van der Geld, M.H.M. Grooten , Air heat exchangers with long heat pipes: Experiments and predictions, Applied thermal engineering,27 (2007) 24262434

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