IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/energy/v144y2018icp443-455.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Enhancement in free cooling potential through PCM based storage system integrated with direct evaporative cooling (DEC) unit

Author

Listed:
  • Panchabikesan, Karthik
  • Vincent, Antony Aroul Raj
  • Ding, Yulong
  • Ramalingam, Velraj

Abstract

The present work reports the enhancement in free cooling potential using a modified cooling system compared to the conventional free cooling system. The proposed modified system is a novel pilot scale model packed with spherically encapsulated phase change material in a cylindrical tank along with water spray nozzles (direct evaporative cooling unit) at the inlet of the tank. The experiments were conducted in Bangalore, a city located in south India that possesses moderate/temperate climate throughout the year. Considering the local ambient conditions, an organic phase change material with the phase transition temperature range of 25.6–27.1 °C was used in the present study. Significant reduction in total charging duration and enhancement in heat transfer rate was achieved through the hybrid cooling system. The reduction in charging duration of 28.7% and 34.8% was observed for the proposed hybrid cooling system at heat transfer fluid (HTF) inlet velocities of 2 and 1.5 m/s respectively. It is observed from the results that in the experiments conducted with conventional free cooling system at 1 m/s HTF velocity, the phase change material (PCM) placed in the last two rows of the storage tank did not reach its end freezing temperature even after 10 h of experimentation due to the low heat transfer rate, whereas in the experiments conducted with the modified free cooling system, the storage tank is completely charged at all HTF velocities. It is construed from the results that the integration of evaporative cooling unit along with phase change material based free cooling system aids the chosen phase change material to completely solidify at a faster rate and augments the thermal performance of the storage unit. The proposed system can be operated as a single stand-alone cooling system to meet the cooling demand of the buildings or it can be integrated with the mechanically operated HVAC systems to achieve energy efficiency in the overall cooling system.

Suggested Citation

  • Panchabikesan, Karthik & Vincent, Antony Aroul Raj & Ding, Yulong & Ramalingam, Velraj, 2018. "Enhancement in free cooling potential through PCM based storage system integrated with direct evaporative cooling (DEC) unit," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 443-455.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:144:y:2018:i:c:p:443-455
    DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2017.11.117
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544217319758
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.energy.2017.11.117?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Waqas, Adeel & Ud Din, Zia, 2013. "Phase change material (PCM) storage for free cooling of buildings—A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 18(C), pages 607-625.
    2. Chandrasekaran, P. & Cheralathan, M. & Velraj, R., 2015. "Effect of fill volume on solidification characteristics of DI (deionized) water in a spherical capsule – An experimental study," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 90(P1), pages 508-515.
    3. Felix Regin, A. & Solanki, S.C. & Saini, J.S., 2009. "An analysis of a packed bed latent heat thermal energy storage system using PCM capsules: Numerical investigation," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 34(7), pages 1765-1773.
    4. Mosaffa, A.H. & Garousi Farshi, L. & Infante Ferreira, C.A. & Rosen, M.A., 2014. "Energy and exergy evaluation of a multiple-PCM thermal storage unit for free cooling applications," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 452-458.
    5. Alizadeh, M. & Sadrameli, S.M., 2016. "Development of free cooling based ventilation technology for buildings: Thermal energy storage (TES) unit, performance enhancement techniques and design considerations – A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 619-645.
    6. Panchabikesan, Karthik & Vellaisamy, Kumaresan & Ramalingam, Velraj, 2017. "Passive cooling potential in buildings under various climatic conditions in India," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 1236-1252.
    7. Vidrih, Boris & Arkar, Ciril & Medved, Sašo, 2016. "Generalized model-based predictive weather control for the control of free cooling by enhanced night-time ventilation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 168(C), pages 482-492.
    8. Raj, V. Antony Aroul & Velraj, R., 2010. "Review on free cooling of buildings using phase change materials," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 14(9), pages 2819-2829, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Panchabikesan, Karthik & Joybari, Mahmood Mastani & Haghighat, Fariborz & Ramalingam, Velraj & Ding, Yulong, 2020. "Feasibility study on the year-round operation of PCM based free cooling systems in tropical climatic conditions," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    2. Klimeš, Lubomír & Charvát, Pavel & Mastani Joybari, Mahmood & Zálešák, Martin & Haghighat, Fariborz & Panchabikesan, Karthik & El Mankibi, Mohamed & Yuan, Yanping, 2020. "Computer modelling and experimental investigation of phase change hysteresis of PCMs: The state-of-the-art review," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 263(C).
    3. Luo, Xilian & Chang, Bin & Tian, Wei & Li, Juan & Gu, Zhaolin, 2019. "Experimental study on local environmental control for historical site in archaeological museum by evaporative cooling system," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 798-809.
    4. Sathishkumar, A. & Cheralathan, M., 2023. "Charging and discharging processes of low capacity nano-PCM based cool thermal energy storage system: An experimental study," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 263(PB).
    5. Faraj, Khaireldin & Khaled, Mahmoud & Faraj, Jalal & Hachem, Farouk & Castelain, Cathy, 2020. "Phase change material thermal energy storage systems for cooling applications in buildings: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Panchabikesan, Karthik & Joybari, Mahmood Mastani & Haghighat, Fariborz & Ramalingam, Velraj & Ding, Yulong, 2020. "Feasibility study on the year-round operation of PCM based free cooling systems in tropical climatic conditions," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    2. Panchabikesan, Karthik & Vellaisamy, Kumaresan & Ramalingam, Velraj, 2017. "Passive cooling potential in buildings under various climatic conditions in India," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 1236-1252.
    3. Mosaffa, A.H. & Garousi Farshi, L., 2016. "Exergoeconomic and environmental analyses of an air conditioning system using thermal energy storage," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 515-526.
    4. Alizadeh, M. & Sadrameli, S.M., 2016. "Development of free cooling based ventilation technology for buildings: Thermal energy storage (TES) unit, performance enhancement techniques and design considerations – A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 619-645.
    5. Zeinelabdein, Rami & Omer, Siddig & Gan, Guohui, 2018. "Critical review of latent heat storage systems for free cooling in buildings," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 82(P3), pages 2843-2868.
    6. Sharif, M.K. Anuar & Al-Abidi, A.A. & Mat, S. & Sopian, K. & Ruslan, M.H. & Sulaiman, M.Y. & Rosli, M.A.M., 2015. "Review of the application of phase change material for heating and domestic hot water systems," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 557-568.
    7. Tao, Y.B. & He, Ya-Ling, 2018. "A review of phase change material and performance enhancement method for latent heat storage system," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 245-259.
    8. Zeng, Cheng & Liu, Shuli & Shukla, Ashish, 2017. "Adaptability research on phase change materials based technologies in China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 145-158.
    9. Lizana, Jesús & Chacartegui, Ricardo & Barrios-Padura, Angela & Ortiz, Carlos, 2018. "Advanced low-carbon energy measures based on thermal energy storage in buildings: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 82(P3), pages 3705-3749.
    10. Salunkhe, Pramod B. & Shembekar, Prashant S., 2012. "A review on effect of phase change material encapsulation on the thermal performance of a system," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 16(8), pages 5603-5616.
    11. Pereira da Cunha, Jose & Eames, Philip, 2016. "Thermal energy storage for low and medium temperature applications using phase change materials – A review," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 177(C), pages 227-238.
    12. Abdul Mujeebu, Muhammad & Alshamrani, Othman Subhi, 2016. "Prospects of energy conservation and management in buildings – The Saudi Arabian scenario versus global trends," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 1647-1663.
    13. Soares, N. & Bastos, J. & Pereira, L. Dias & Soares, A. & Amaral, A.R. & Asadi, E. & Rodrigues, E. & Lamas, F.B. & Monteiro, H. & Lopes, M.A.R. & Gaspar, A.R., 2017. "A review on current advances in the energy and environmental performance of buildings towards a more sustainable built environment," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 845-860.
    14. Mostafaeipour, Ali & Bardel, Behnoosh & Mohammadi, Kasra & Sedaghat, Ahmad & Dinpashoh, Yagob, 2014. "Economic evaluation for cooling and ventilation of medicine storage warehouses utilizing wind catchers," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 12-19.
    15. Zhang, Haihua & Yang, Dong & Tam, Vivian W.Y. & Tao, Yao & Zhang, Guomin & Setunge, Sujeeva & Shi, Long, 2021. "A critical review of combined natural ventilation techniques in sustainable buildings," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    16. Wang, Zhangyuan & Qiu, Feng & Yang, Wansheng & Zhao, Xudong, 2015. "Applications of solar water heating system with phase change material," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 645-652.
    17. Memon, Shazim Ali, 2014. "Phase change materials integrated in building walls: A state of the art review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 870-906.
    18. Du, Kun & Calautit, John & Wang, Zhonghua & Wu, Yupeng & Liu, Hao, 2018. "A review of the applications of phase change materials in cooling, heating and power generation in different temperature ranges," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 220(C), pages 242-273.
    19. Xinghui Zhang & Qili Shi & Lingai Luo & Yilin Fan & Qian Wang & Guanguan Jia, 2021. "Research Progress on the Phase Change Materials for Cold Thermal Energy Storage," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-46, December.
    20. Ge, Haoshan & Li, Haiyan & Mei, Shengfu & Liu, Jing, 2013. "Low melting point liquid metal as a new class of phase change material: An emerging frontier in energy area," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 21(C), pages 331-346.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:144:y:2018:i:c:p:443-455. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/energy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.