Volume 28: Closing Carbon Cycles – A Transformation Process Involving Technology, Economy, and Society: Part III

Numerical Investigation of a Solar Sunrise Transient Temperature Model for Latent Heat Thermal Energy Storage System Raymond O. Ikeleji, Tunde Bello-Ochende

Abstract

This study investigates numerically the sunrise and sunset transient temperature model that is developed for modeling sunlight’s temperature in designing latent heat thermal energy storage system (LHTESS), to close carbon cycles. It was used as a model for the threedimensional conjugate phase change material (PCM) melting procedure in the thermal storage of a 500K-rated concentrated solar power (CSP) plant using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code. Air is the heat transfer fluid (HTF). Two transient solar temperature models and an isothermal model were studied and compared. The reduction in the expected storage time and increased energy storage greatly improved the system’s efficiency. The numerical model results were substantiated by experimental evidence from the open literature.

Keywords CSP, CFD, PCM, LHTESS, Heat transfer, Sunrise and Sunset temperature model