CFD APPLICATION IN THE DESING OF A THERMAL STORAGE

In this research, a typical high Reynolds-number type k-epsilon model was applied to simulate the flow physics and temperature behaviors in a temperature -stratified thermal storage water tank .To obtain the temperature distribution for all thermal storage process, present numerical analysis treated the unsteady flow during entire thermal storage period (10 hours) in all water tanks . Results showed that properly located flow regulation panels can significantly enhance temperature stratification in the thermal storage water tank .The stratified temperature thus maintained the optimal temperature difference for chiller's operation and reduced its operation time for a certain amount of stored thermal energy. It can also be reasoned out that the stratified temperature provides better outlet water temperature during thermal recovery process. Owing to the popularity of the present turbulence model and reasonable calculation load, it can be concluded that present CFD technique is effective in evaluation of the design plans for thermal storage water tanks.