Heat Transfer Characteristics of the Spherical Capsule Storage System Using Paraffins

The present study is to investigate the effect of experimental parameters on the heat transfer characteristics of a spherical capsule storage system using paraffins. N-Tetradecane and mixture of n-Tetradecane 40% and n-Hexadecane 60% were used as paraffins. Water with inorganic material was also tested for the comparison. The experimental parameters were varied for the Reynolds number from 8 to 16 and for the inlet temperature from -7 to 2$^{\circ}C$. Measured local temperatures of spherical capsules in the storage tank were utilized to calculate charging and discharging times, dimensionless thermal storage amount, and the average heat transfer coefficients in the tank. Local charging and discharging times in the storage tank were significantly different. The effect of inlet temperature on charging time was larger than that on discharging time, but the effect of Reynolds number on charging time was smaller than that on discharging time. Charging time of paraffins was faster by 11~72% than that of water with inorganic material, but little difference of discharging time was found among them. The effect of Reynolds number on the dimensionless thermal storage was less during charging process and more during discharging process than the effect of inlet temperature. The effect of the inlet temperature and the Reynolds number on the average heat transfer coefficient of the storage tank was stronger during discharging process than during charging process. The average heat transfer coefficients of the spherical capsule system using paraffins were larger by 40% than those using water.