Numerical Verification of Mobile Thermal Energy Storage Performance

Abstract: The energy demand worldwide is constantly increasing and energy efficient technologies are considered a crucial factor in order to restrain this trend. Mobile thermal energy storage (M-TES) using phase change material (PCM) has a great potential in storing heat waste as energy and transporting it from the heat source to end user. This paper presents a numerical verification of an experimental setup of M-TES using Erythritol as PCM. A three-dimensional computational fluid dynamic (CFD) model was developed for the simulation of the experimental setup. The numerical model was solved using ANSYS Fluent commercial software. Several factors affected the uncertainties for the comparison between the experimental and numerical results. For example: initial temperature of the PCM, thermo-physical properties, post processing method and the amount of melted or solidified PCM at the end of the experimental test. It was found that the numerical model showed 3% more stored energy during the charge process and released 24% more energy during the discharge process. The following study concludes that CFD modelling of M-TES is a valid approach for predicting the performance.