Karwacki Jarosław
Institute of Fluid Flow Machinery, Polish Academy of Sciences, Fiszera 14 Str., 80-231 Gdańsk, Poland.
Materials (Basel). 2021 Mar 11;14(6):1356. doi: 10.3390/ma14061356.
The application of energy storage filled with phase-change material (PCM) is recently increasingly considered in active cooling systems. Such a design offers a higher density of thermal energy accumulation when compared with water storage. However, the optimum use of PCM storage is possible when its dynamic characteristics during the loading and unloading process are well recognized. Due to the complexity of the interaction between all elements of the heating/cooling system, a theoretical estimation of the profits is hard to perform in a reliable way. This is a significant problem at the design stage of the installation. In order to solve this problem, a laboratory experiment supported by a simulation was performed. The main aim of the experiment was to understand how the storage filled with the PCM in real-like conditions works. A test stand was made to investigate the effect of this solution on a reduced scale of 1:10. The PCM tested was RT15, a commercially available material that melts in the temperature range of 10-17 °C. The main parts of the stand are a chiller, an electric heater and thermal energy storage. The first two elements allowed a simulation of the thermal properties of the heat receiver, and their operation depended on the results from the numerical calculations. A lumped parameter model was used in mathematical description of the office building and its cooling system. The heat capacity of the system components as well as heat losses to the ambient environment were taken into account. The obtained results allowed the optimization of the control procedure and proved the validity of the applied investigation methods. This study confirmed the possibility of testing thermal energy storage with phase change material in real-like conditions.
最近，在主动式冷却系统中越来越多地考虑应用填充相变材料（PCM）的储能装置。与储水相比，这种设计具有更高的热能存储密度。然而，只有充分认识到PCM储能装置在充放电过程中的动态特性，才能实现其最佳利用。由于加热/冷却系统所有元件之间相互作用的复杂性，很难可靠地对收益进行理论估算。这在装置设计阶段是一个重大问题。为了解决这个问题，进行了一项有模拟支持的实验室实验。该实验的主要目的是了解在实际条件下填充PCM的储能装置是如何工作的。搭建了一个试验台，以1:10的缩小比例研究这种解决方案的效果。所测试的PCM是RT15，一种市售材料，其熔点在10 - 17°C范围内。试验台的主要部件是一台冷水机、一个电加热器和热能储存装置。前两个元件可以模拟热接收器的热性能，它们的运行取决于数值计算结果。在办公楼及其冷却系统的数学描述中使用了集总参数模型。考虑了系统组件的热容量以及向周围环境的热损失。所获得的结果有助于优化控制程序，并证明了所应用研究方法的有效性。这项研究证实了在实际条件下测试相变材料热能储存装置的可能性。
