• Ocean and Polar Research
• /
• v.34 no.2
• /
• pp.265-273
• /
• 2012

A new algorithm was developed, not only to detect the existence of a thermocline, but also to extract the thermocline parameters (such as thermocline thickness, mixed layer thickness, maximum temperature gradient, and temperature difference of thermocline), using the vertical profile of water temperature. According to Kappa analysis, in order to find adequate threshold values of vertical water temperature gradients ${\Delta}T$ ($^{\circ}C/m$), agreement and reliability were 87% and 0.74 respectively, in the conditions of maximum ${\Delta}T{\geq}0.5$ and surface and bottom layers ${\Delta}T<{\mid}0.2{\mid}$. Also, three different kinds of methods, viz. 1. Gradient method, 2. Hyperbolic tangent method, and 3. Differential hyperbolic tangent method, were tested to extract the key parameters of a thermocline. Comparing the results of three different methods, the differential hyperbolic tangent method was the most appropriate to extract the start and end point of a thermocline curve.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
• /
• v.16 no.4
• /
• pp.374-382
• /
• 2004

Diffuser design is crucial for water-chilled heat storage. Its impact on the system performance is more significant for the underground tank due to inherent limit on the aspect ratio and tank shape. The effect of diffuser shape on the performance of the water-chilled heat storage is numerically investigated. Three dimensional simulation has been conducted for fully incorporating the complex diffuser shape and the non-symmetric tank shape. Mixing at the inlet of the diffuser depends on the inlet Reynolds number, Froude number and the diffuser shape. Three types of the diffuser shape and the broad range of Reynolds number (Re=400, 800, 1200) and Froude number (Fr=0.5, 1.0, 2.0) are examined. The performance of the heat storage tank is evaluated by the thermocline thickness which is reverse to the degree of stratification. The radial regulated plate diffuser, which is the suggested diffuser shape in this study, shows the lowest thermocline thickness in the condition considered.

• Journal of the korean society of oceanography
• /
• v.38 no.1
• /
• pp.11-16
• /
• 2003

The three dimensional structure of thermohaline circulation in a D-plane is investigated using a conceptual two layer model and a scaling argument. In this simple model, the water mass formation region is excluded. The upper layer represents the oceans above the main thermocline. The lower layer represents the deep ocean below the thermocline and is much thicker than the upper layer. In each layer, geostrophy and the linear vorticity balance are assumed. The cross interfacial velocity that compensates for the deep water mass formation balances downward heat diffusion from the top. From the above relations, we can determine the thickness of the upper layer, which is the same as thermocline depth. The results we get is basically the same as that we get for an f-plane ocean or the classical thermocline theory. Mass budget using the velocity scales from the scaling argument shows that western boundary and interior transports are much larger than the net meridional transport. Therefore in the thermohaline circulation, horizontal circulation is much stronger than the vertical circulation occuring on a meridional plane.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
• /
• v.36 no.5
• /
• pp.392-404
• /
• 2020

The focus of this study was to quantify the thermal stratification and analyze the relationship between the stratification structure and the tributaries to understand flow variations in the Paldang Reservoir. The vertical distribution of the temperature and density gradients, and the depth and thickness of the thermocline were quantitatively calculated using a lake physics tool (rLakeAnalyzer) and high-frequency monitoring data. Based on a density gradient of 0.2 kg/㎥/m, the thermocline was formed from mid-May to early-September 2019 and the other periods were weakly stratified or mixed. The thickness of the thermocline was developed until 4.7 m and the depth of the thermocline was formed at a depth of 3 - 6 m at the front of the Paldang Reservoir. During the formation of the thermocline, the Namhangang and Gyeongancheon tributaries with relatively high water temperature (low-density) flowed into the upper layer of the reservoir, and the Bukhangang tributary with low water temperature (high-density) mainly affected the lower layer of the reservoir. This is because the density currents were formed due to the difference in the water temperature of the tributaries. The findings of this study may be used for constructing high-frequency monitoring and quantitative data analyses of reservoirs.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
• /
• v.22 no.7
• /
• pp.468-473
• /
• 2010

This paper deals with approximate integral solutions to the one-dimensional model describing the charging process of stratified thermal storage tanks. Temperature is assumed to be the form of Fermi-Dirac distribution function, which can be separated to two sets of cubic polynomials for each hot and cold side of thermal boundary layers. Proposed approximate integral solutions are compared to the previous works of the approximate analytic solutions and show reasonable agreement. The approach, however, has benefits in mathematical difficulties, complicated solution form and unstable convergence of series solution founded in the previous analytic solutions. Solutions for a semi-infinite region, which have simple closed form solutions, give close agreement to those for a finite region. Thermocline thickness is obtained in closed form and shows proportional behavior to the square root of time and inverse proportional behavior to the square root of flow rate.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Visualization
• /
• v.18 no.2
• /
• pp.28-34
• /
• 2020

In this study, we numerically investigated the thermal stratification in solar seasonal thermal storage tanks. The vertical in/out flows were unsuitable for the thermal stratification in a large scale. The effect of an aspect ratio (AR) on the thermal stratification was investigated. When AR was less than 2, water adheres and flows along the upper wall due to buoyance and the surface effect. Thereafter, hot water flows down and a large scale vortex occurs in entire tank. For high AR, jet flows ejected from the inlet pipe impinges to the opposite wall and splits. The divided flows create two vortex flows in the upper and lower regions. These different flows strongly influence temperature and thermal stratification. The thermal stratification was evaluated in terms of the thermocline thickness and degree of stratification. Compared to ARs, the maximum degree of stratification was obtained with AR of 5 having the minimum thermocline thickness.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Visualization
• /
• v.19 no.3
• /
• pp.99-105
• /
• 2021

In this study, the thermal stratification in solar seasonal thermal storage tanks was numerically simulated. The effects of the aspect ratio (AR) and inlet velocity on the thermal stratification in the diffuser type heat storage tank were investigated. The temperature distributions inside the tank were similar with velocity fields. Jet flows from opposite diffusers encountered each other at the tank center region. Thereafter, the downward flows occurred, and this flows strongly affected the thermal stratification. When AR was smaller than 2, these downward flows influenced a further distance and enhanced mixing inside the tank. Thermal stratification was evaluated by thermocline thickness and degree of stratification, and AR of 3 had the highest degree of stratification. The inlet velocity effect was expressed with the ratio (Re/Ri) of Reynolds and Richardson numbers. The second-order approximation was found for the relationship between the thermocline thickness and log Re/Ri.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
• /
• v.21 no.6
• /
• pp.341-350
• /
• 1988

The wind stress distribution over the East Sea of Korea was obtained from the shipboard observations of the Fisheries Research and Development Agency along the serial observation lines. These monthly and annual mean wind stress distributions were put into the simplified interface model which describes the latitudinal variations of the upper-layer thickness as function of the curl of the wind stress. The observed variations of the surface, zonally averaged winds indeed caused the upper-layer flow convergent and divergent at the latitudes that produced a tone of thick upper-layer or a deep permanent thermocline and the shallower depth with divergence. Thus, the wind field contributes positively to maintain the almost time-independent distribution of the interface of 'saddle like' feature in north-south direction over the study area.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
• /
• v.17 no.6
• /
• pp.349-356
• /
• 2008

This paper aims to understand the effects of a turbidity flow intrusion on eutrophication in Daecheong Dam Reservoir. CE-QUAL-W2, a two-dimensional hydrodynamic and water quality model, is applied. The elevation of the reservoir water surface is used to validate the hydrodynamic model parameters and maximum fluctuations in the water surface elevations reaches about 1 m in the reservoir. During the heavy storm season, July, the thermocline submerged to less than 30 m below the surface. The thickness of the thermocline also reduced to 10 to 15 m. While the average TSS in June, the beginning of the monsoon was still low but it peaked in July due to heavy rainfall. Vertical profiles of the TSS regime in July indicated higher concentration in upper water layers and then the regime moves gradually downward in accordance with the time lapse. Due to the dam spillway opening, high concentrations of TSS attributed to storm turbidity ascended to the upper water layer by following the upward current movement and then, the regime precipitated to a layer below 30 to 40 m after September.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
• /
• v.16 no.11
• /
• pp.1077-1083
• /
• 2004

This study is to systematically analyze the effect of various kinds of design factors on the performance of stratified thermal storage tank. Taguchi method, known as a very reasonable tool in the parametric study, is employed in the present work. Three dimensional unsteady numerical experiment is conducted for 4 design parameters of stratified thermal storage tank: inlet Reynolds number, Froude number, diffuser size d with 3 levels (Re=400, 800, 1200, Fr=0.5, 1.0, 2.0 and d=150 mm, 200mm, 300 mm) and diffuser shape with 2 levels. Orthogonal array $L_{18}(2{\times}3^7)$ is adopted for the analysis of variance. The result gives quantitative estimation of the various design parameters affecting the performance and helps to select the main factors for the optimum design of stratified thermal storage tank. Reynolds number is found to be the most dominant parameter and the diffuser shape plays significant role on the performance of stratified thermal storage tank. Based on this finding, the prior questions on the contribution of the diffuser shape proposed by the authors become clear. The optimum condition for the performance is a set of d=300mm, Re=800, and radial regulated plate diffuser. Conformation test shows the repeatability in the analysis and $1.3\%$ difference between the estimated thermocline thickness and that of numerical result.