Modeling and Experimental Thermal Analysis of Ice Spherical Capsules Thermal Energy Storage

This paper presents a numerical and experimental study of a storage system composed of spherical capsules filled with water placed inside a horizontal cylindrical tank and a working fluid circulation system to charge and dis-charge the storage tank. The simplified one-dimensional model is based on pure conduction in the water subject to boundary conditions of constant temperature or force convection heat transfer on the external surface of the spherical capsules. The mathematical model of spherical capsules with ice thermal energy storage system has been developed for the computer simulation of the energy storage system. The model was then used to predict the optimal capacity of the storage tank and the effect of the spherical capsule diameter, the spherical capsule wall thickness, the spherical capsule material, the inlet or initial temperature, the ice mass fraction, and the time on the charging and discharging processes. The results indicated that the optimal cool energy can be fully stored when the 60 mm of the spherical capsule diameter and 70% of spherical capsule porosity in storage tank. And test performed to note Reynold number, the diameter of the spherical capsules, and the number of the spherical capsules dependencies of two phase and energy storage.