IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/energy/v313y2024ics0360544224038258.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Enhancing performance in heat storage unit and packed-bed system: Novel capsule designs inspired by drop structure

Author

Listed:
  • Chen, Xudong
  • Zhang, Jingyu
  • Zou, Huichuan
  • Zhang, Guoliang
  • Zhang, Aoyu
  • Dong, Yan
  • Liang, Huaxu
  • Wang, Fuqiang

Abstract

Packed-bed system offers a promising solution to the uneven spatiotemporal variability of solar energy. However, challenges persist in its development, including excessive disparity in localized temperature, sluggish heat storage rate, and suboptimal efficiency. In this context, the drop structure phase change material capsule concept was proposed to enhance thermal energy storage performance, drawing inspiration from the streamlined structure such as tuna or submarine. This research delves into the comprehensive performance of drop, sphere, and shuttle structure capsules, encompassing experimental investigation and simulation analysis of the external convection, internal melting, and charging processes. Additionally, an experimental visualization setup was devised to monitor the melting process. The results indicated that replacing conventional sphere structure capsule with the drop structure capsule reduces the drag of external flow by 10.12 %. The complete melting time of the individual capsule and the packed-bed system was shortened by 5.53 % and 10.94 %, respectively. Furthermore, the standard deviations of the longitudinal and radial average temperatures decreased by 24.12 % and 29.97 %, respectively.

Suggested Citation

  • Chen, Xudong & Zhang, Jingyu & Zou, Huichuan & Zhang, Guoliang & Zhang, Aoyu & Dong, Yan & Liang, Huaxu & Wang, Fuqiang, 2024. "Enhancing performance in heat storage unit and packed-bed system: Novel capsule designs inspired by drop structure," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 313(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:313:y:2024:i:c:s0360544224038258
    DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2024.134047
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544224038258
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.energy.2024.134047?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

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gilson Dranka, Géremi & Ferreira, Paula & Vaz, A. Ismael F., 2022. "Co-benefits between energy efficiency and demand-response on renewable-based energy systems," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    2. Yan, Zhongjun & Zhu, Yuexiang & Liu, Lifang & Yu, Zhun (Jerry) & Li, Shuisheng & Zhang, Guoqiang, 2023. "Performance enhancement of cylindrical latent heat storage units in hot water tanks via wavy design," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 218(C).
    3. Hu, Nan & Li, Zi-Rui & Xu, Zhe-Wen & Fan, Li-Wu, 2022. "Rapid charging for latent heat thermal energy storage: A state-of-the-art review of close-contact melting," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    4. Yao, Haichen & Liu, Xianglei & Li, Jiawei & Luo, Qingyang & Tian, Yang & Xuan, Yimin, 2023. "Chloroplast-granum inspired phase change capsules accelerate energy storage of packed-bed thermal energy storage system," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 284(C).
    5. Kumar, G. Senthil & Nagarajan, D. & Chidambaram, L.A. & Kumaresan, V. & Ding, Y. & Velraj, R., 2016. "Role of PCM addition on stratification behaviour in a thermal storage tank – An experimental study," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 115(P1), pages 1168-1178.
    6. Moreno, Diana & Nielsen, Steffen & Sorknæs, Peter & Lund, Henrik & Thellufsen, Jakob Zinck & Mathiesen, Brian Vad, 2024. "Exploring the location and use of baseload district heating supply. What can current heat sources tell us about future opportunities?," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 288(C).
    7. Chen, Xudong & Li, Chunzhe & Yang, Zhenning & Dong, Yan & Wang, Fuqiang & Cheng, Ziming & Yang, Chun, 2024. "Golf-ball-inspired phase change material capsule: Experimental and numerical simulation analysis of flow characteristics and thermal performance," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 293(C).
    8. Shao, Y.L. & Soh, K.Y. & Islam, M.R. & Chua, K.J., 2023. "Thermal, exergy and economic analysis of a cascaded packed-bed tank with multiple phase change materials for district cooling system," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 268(C).
    9. Xia, L. & Zhang, P. & Wang, R.Z., 2010. "Numerical heat transfer analysis of the packed bed latent heat storage system based on an effective packed bed model," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(5), pages 2022-2032.
    10. Tian, Yang & Liu, Xianglei & Zheng, Hangbin & Xu, Qiao & Zhu, Zhonghui & Luo, Qinyang & Song, Chao & Gao, Ke & Yao, Haichen & Dang, Chunzhuo & Xuan, Yimin, 2022. "Artificial mitochondrion for fast latent heat storage: Experimental study and lattice Boltzmann simulation," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 245(C).
    11. Pu, Jihong & Shen, Chao & Yang, Shaoxin & Zhang, Chunxiao & Chwieduk, Dorota & Kalogirou, Soteris A., 2022. "Feasibility investigation on using silver nanorods in energy saving windows for light/heat decoupling," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 245(C).
    12. Dong, Yan & Wang, Fuqiang & Zhang, Yaqi & Shi, Xuhang & Zhang, Aoyu & Shuai, Yong, 2022. "Experimental and numerical study on flow characteristic and thermal performance of macro-capsules phase change material with biomimetic oval structure," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 238(PB).
    13. Shi, Xuhang & Li, Chunzhe & Yang, Zhenning & Xu, Jie & Song, Jintao & Wang, Fuqiang & Shuai, Yong & Zhang, Wenjing, 2024. "Egg-tray-inspired concave foam structure on pore-scale space radiation regulation for enhancing photo-thermal-chemical synergistic conversion," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 297(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Li, Wei & Gao, Zihan & Liu, Shida & Wang, Jing & Zhang, Xu & Zhao, Jun, 2025. "Study on the performance improvement of thermal storage tank by encapsulating PCM in the shape of red blood cells," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 388(C).
    2. Chen, Xudong & Li, Chunzhe & Yang, Zhenning & Dong, Yan & Wang, Fuqiang & Cheng, Ziming & Yang, Chun, 2024. "Golf-ball-inspired phase change material capsule: Experimental and numerical simulation analysis of flow characteristics and thermal performance," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 293(C).
    3. Tang, Yong & Wang, Zhichao & Zhou, Jinzhi & Zeng, Chao & Lyu, Weihua & Lu, Lin & Yuan, Yanping, 2024. "Experimental study on the performance of packed-bed latent thermal energy storage system employing spherical capsules with hollow channels," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 293(C).
    4. Kinga Pielichowska & Martyna Szatkowska & Krzysztof Pielichowski, 2025. "Thermal Energy Storage in Bio-Inspired PCM-Based Systems," Energies, MDPI, vol. 18(13), pages 1-28, July.
    5. Mao, Qianjun & Cao, Wenlong, 2023. "Effect of variable capsule size on energy storage performances in a high-temperature three-layered packed bed system," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 273(C).
    6. Dong, Yan & Zhang, Xinping & Chen, Lingling & Meng, Weifeng & Wang, Cunhai & Cheng, Ziming & Liang, Huaxu & Wang, Fuqiang, 2023. "Progress in passive daytime radiative cooling: A review from optical mechanism, performance test, and application," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 188(C).
    7. He, Xibo & Wang, Wei & Shuai, Yong & Hou, Yicheng & Qiu, Jun, 2025. "Cross-scale thermal analysis and comprehensive evaluation of biomimetic skin-flesh composite phase change material for waste heat recovery," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 314(C).
    8. Liang, Shen & Zheng, Hongfei & Wang, Xuanlin & Ma, Xinglong & Zhao, Zhiyong, 2022. "Design and performance validation on a solar louver with concentrating-photovoltaic-thermal modules," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 191(C), pages 71-83.
    9. Shi, Xuhang & Li, Chunzhe & Yang, Zhenning & Xu, Jie & Song, Jintao & Wang, Fuqiang & Shuai, Yong & Zhang, Wenjing, 2024. "Egg-tray-inspired concave foam structure on pore-scale space radiation regulation for enhancing photo-thermal-chemical synergistic conversion," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 297(C).
    10. Alva, Guruprasad & Lin, Yaxue & Fang, Guiyin, 2018. "An overview of thermal energy storage systems," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 341-378.
    11. Sun, Yuying & Hao, Yingying & Wang, Dan & Wang, Wei & Deng, Shiming & Qi, Haoran & Xue, Peng, 2022. "A predictive control strategy for electrochromic glazing to balance the visual and thermal environmental requirements: Approach and energy-saving potential assessment," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 194(C), pages 334-348.
    12. Deng, Xu & Lv, Tao & Meng, Xiangyun & Li, Cong & Hou, Xiaoran & Xu, Jie & Wang, Yinhao & Liu, Feng, 2024. "Assessing the carbon emission reduction effect of flexibility option for integrating variable renewable energy," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    13. 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.
    14. Tian, Yang & Ji, Mingxi & Qin, Xinliang & Yang, Chun & Liu, Xianglei, 2024. "Self-growing bionic leaf-vein fins for high-power-density and high-efficiency latent heat thermal energy storage," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 309(C).
    15. Huiqian Guo & ELSaeed Saad ELSihy & Zhirong Liao & Xiaoze Du, 2021. "A Comparative Study on the Performance of Single and Multi-Layer Encapsulated Phase Change Material Packed-Bed Thermocline Tanks," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-24, April.
    16. Mao, Qianjun & Zhang, Yamei, 2020. "Thermal energy storage performance of a three-PCM cascade tank in a high-temperature packed bed system," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 110-119.
    17. Yan, Zhongjun & Liu, Zhengxuan & Luo, Yongqiang & Pan, Shulin & Chen, Wang & Zhang, Yuan & Liang, Ke, 2025. "Optimizing thermal performance of hollow cylindrical latent heat storage units: Insights into geometry-driven heat transfer enhancements," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 322(C).
    18. Tumirah, K. & Hussein, M.Z. & Zulkarnain, Z. & Rafeadah, R., 2014. "Nano-encapsulated organic phase change material based on copolymer nanocomposites for thermal energy storage," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 881-890.
    19. Yang, Haotian & Liu, Xingjiang & Gu, Yaping & Shen, Chao, 2025. "A novel photovoltaic-photothermal coupling skylight based on spectral complementation conception: System design and performance investigation," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 243(C).
    20. Han, Miao & Pu, Jihong & Liu, Yongdong & Liu, Xingjiang & Mei, Hongyuan & Shen, Chao, 2023. "Near-infrared blocking window based on ATO-CWO/PVB nano-lamination," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 219(P1).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:313:y:2024:i:c:s0360544224038258. 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.