The Application of FlexPDE in Latent Heat Thermal Energy Storage Problems

Introduction

The ever-increasing growth of the world's population and economy has significantly increased the demand for thermal energy. This increase has serious and harmful effects on the environment. The emission of greenhouse gasses, especially carbon dioxide, is the main cause of these consequences. This phenomenon, together with the destructive effects on the ozone layer, can cause global warming. These factors alone will more than increase energy demand by 2050. As mentioned earlier, with the increasing consumption of fossil fuels and the deterioration of weather conditions, it seems urgent to adopt a new method to control the current conditions. The 18% increase in energy consumption in the last decade and the projected 30% increase in energy consumption in the coming years is also a reason to use an alternative method. Renewable energy is a reliable way to solve the environmental problems we face. Today, efforts are being made to generate energy from renewable sources. For example, in the field of global electricity generation, renewable energy sources have generated a total of 24.5% of the energy. Buildings are one of the most important factors in increasing energy demand. Heating and air conditioning (HVAC) systems account for nearly 60% of energy consumption in buildings. For this reason, cooling and heating equipment is one of the most important and largest sources of energy consumption in the world today. It should be noted that energy management is important not only in buildings, but also in many other industries. The erratic behavior of renewable resources is one of the problems that affects their reliability. Thermal energy storage systems (TESS) can reduce the unsteady nature of renewable resources due to their storage capability. In recent years, TESS has reduced the impact and thermal load of various devices, which has also increased the efficiency of thermal devices. The features of thermal energy storage systems (TESS) include high energy storage capacity, constant working temperature and high heat transfer speed. Thermal energy storage is divided into three categories:

• 1.

  Energy storage in the form of sensible heat

• 2.

  Energy storage as latent heat

• 3.

  Thermal energy storage by chemical reaction