Abstract
A thermal energy storage (TES) air-conditioning system has been introduced into many buildings in Japan. The tank of water TES is classified into two types: a labyrinth type and a temperature-stratified type, according to the water-mixing conditions. This study focuses on the temperature-stratified water TES tank, where water with a different temperature is stored by the density difference without mixing. First, a series of experiments was conducted in order to examine the fundamental performance of the temperature-stratified thermal storage tank with a vertical-inflow inlet. Second, we verified the validity by comparing the transient temperature changes/distributions in the TES tank obtained by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) with some experiments. Third, on the basis of the above-mentioned results, a parameter required to predict the performance of the temperature-stratified thermal storage tank with a vertical-inflow inlet was identified from the CFD analysis results under various conditions. From the above, it was clarified that the parameter estimation equation/curve for predicting the performance of the temperature-stratified thermal storage tank with a vertical-inflow inlet is able to be created using a series of CFD analysis results.
