Thermal phase-change storage for power regeneartion

• Main Author: Toh, Jeremy Wei Hong
• Other Authors: Fei Duan
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/67288
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Thermal energy storage is one of the important technologies in energy storage. In this study, an experimental study is conducted to investigate the efficiency of the designed thermal energy storage (TES) unit and also to test how the designed TES unit performs under different working conditions. The five chambers of the TES unit were filled with paraffin wax which is the phase change material (PCM). A series of experiments were conducted on the designed TES unit at various working conditions where the fan speed and heater power were the controllable variables. The experimental results show that the PCM underwent phase change at slow fan speed and high heater power. In addition, the instantaneous heat transfer rate was also calculated and analysed to investigate the efficiency of the designed TES unit. From the results, the TES unit was more efficient at lower fan speeds and higher heater power with latent heat involved. The comparison experiments of PCM with sensible storage materials, water and air were also investigated. Recommendations to improve the TES unit were discussed and future possible areas of research were also suggested.