In this work, a numerical model to study phase transition in unstructured packed beds of phase change particles for latent heat thermal energy storage is presented and implemented into the open-source CFDEM^® coupling program. The governing equations for both fluid and solid particles are discussed. The presented model is validated using experimental data. The validated model is used to study the effect of bed structure (e.g., using multiple sizes of particles and mixing of multiple configurations of particles) on the charging and discharging of PCM bed. It is found that using smaller particles leads to faster charging and discharging of the bed. A decrease of 26% was achieved by changing half the bed into particles with half the diameter. Furthermore, it is observed that placing small particles downstream has more effect on increased charging speed than placing them upstream when charging the bed fully. A decrease of 20% in charging time and a decrease of 13% in discharging time were observed in the configurations that were tested.

Thermochemical storage using salt hydrates presents a promising energy storage method. Ensuring the long-term effectiveness of the system is critical, demanding both chemical and mechanical stability of material for repetitive cycling. Challenges arise from agglomeration and volume variations during discharging and charging, impacting the cyclability of thermochemical materials (TCM). For practical usage, the material is often used in a packed bed containing millimetre-sized grains. A micro-level analysis of changes in a packed bed system, along with a deeper understanding involving quantifying bed characteristics, is crucial. In this study, micro X-ray computed tomography (XCT) is used to compare changes in the packed bed before and after cycling the material. Findings indicate a significant decrease in pore size distribution in the bed after 10 cycles and a decrease in porosity from 41.34 to 19.91% accompanied by an increase in grain size, reducing void space. A comparison of effective thermal conductivity between the uncycled and cycled reactor indicates an increase after cycling. Additionally, the effective thermal conductivity is lower in the axial direction compared to the radial. XCT data from uncycled and cycled experiments are further used to observe percolation paths inside the bed. Furthermore, at a system scale fluid flow profile comparison is presented for uncycled and cycled packed beds. It has been observed that the permeability decreased and the pressure drop increased from 0.31 to 4.88 Pa after cycling.

The performance of solar-thermal conversion systems can be improved by incorporation of encapsulated phase change materials. In this study, for the first time, Crodatherm^TM 60 as a phase change material (PCM) was successfully encapsulated within polyurea as the shell supporting material. While preparing the slurry samples, graphite nanoplatelet (GNP) sheets were also incorporated to enhance the thermal and photothermal properties of the prepared materials. The morphology and chemical properties of these capsules were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrum, respectively. The results show the spherical-like and core-shell structure of capsules with an average diameter size of 3.34 μm. No chemical interaction was observed between the core and the supporting materials. The thermal characteristics of the microencapsulated PCMs (MEPCMs), analyzed by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), indicate that the prepared samples with 0.1 weight percentage of GNP possess the latent heat of 95.5 J/g at the phase transition temperature of about 64 °C. Analyzing the rheological properties of the prepared slurry with 16 wt % of MEPCMs proves that the prepared material meet the requirements given by the heat transfer applications. The thermal storage capacity, good thermal stability, and improved photothermal performance of the prepared material make it a potential candidate for using in direct absorption solar thermal applications.

Due to the high temperature of the flue gas flowing at high velocity and pressure, the wall cooling is extremely important for the liner of a gas turbine engine combustor. The liner material is heat-resistant steel with relatively low heat conductivity. To accommodate outside wall forced air cooling, the liner is designed to be thin, which unfortunately facilitates the possibility of high-amplitude wall vibrations (and failure due to fatigue) in case of pressure fluctuations in the combustor. The latter may occur due to a possible occurrence of a feedback loop between the aerodynamics, the combustion, the acoustics, and the structural vibrations. The structural vibrations act as a source of acoustic emitting the acoustic waves to the confined fluid. This leads to amplification in the acoustic filed and hence the magnitude of instability in the system. The aim of this paper is to explore the mechanism of fluid–structure interaction (FSI) on the LIMOUSINE setup which leads to limit cycle of pressure oscillations (LCO). Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis using a RANS approach is performed to obtain the thermal and mechanical loading of the combustor liner, and finite element model (FEM) renders the temperature, stress distribution, and deformation in the liner. Results are compared to other numerical approaches like zero-way interaction and conjugated heat transfer model (CHT). To recognize the advantage/disadvantage of each method, validation is made with the available measured data for the pressure and vibration signals, showing that the thermoacoustic instabilities are well predicted using the CHT and two-way coupled approaches, while the zero-way interaction model prediction gives the largest discrepancy from experimental results.

The objective of this study is to investigate the sensitivity and accuracy of the reaction flow-field prediction for the LIMOUSINE combustor with regard to choices in computational mesh and turbulent combustion model. The LIMOUSINE combustor is a partially premixed, bluff body-stabilized natural gas combustor designed to operate at 40–80 kW and atmospheric pressure and used to study combustion instabilities. The transient simulation of a turbulent combusting flow with the purpose to study thermoacoustic instabilities is a very time-consuming process. For that reason, the meshing approach leading to accurate numerical prediction, known sensitivity, and minimized amount of mesh elements is important. Since the numerical dissipation (and dispersion) is highly dependent on, and affected by, the geometrical mesh quality, it is of high importance to control the mesh distribution and element size across the computational domain. Typically, the structural mesh topology allows using much fewer grid elements compared to the unstructured grid; however, an unstructured mesh is favorable for flows in complex geometries. To explore computational stability and accuracy, the numerical dissipation of the cold flow with mixing of fuel and air is studied first in the absence of the combustion process. Thereafter, the studies are extended to combustible flows using standard available ansys-cfx combustion models. To validate the predicted variable fields of the combustor's transient reactive flows, the numerical results for dynamic pressure and temperature variations, resolved under structured and unstructured mesh conditions, are compared with experimental data. The obtained results show minor dependence on the used mesh in the velocity and pressure profiles of the investigated grids under nonreacting conditions. More significant differences are observed in the mixing behavior of air and fuel flows. Here, the numerical dissipation of the (unstructured) tetrahedral mesh topology is higher than in the case of the (structured) hexahedral mesh. For that reason, the combusting flow, resolved with the use of the hexahedral mesh, presents better agreement with experimental data and demands less computational effort. Finally, in the paper, the performance of the combustion model for reacting flow is presented and the main issues of the applied combustion modeling are reviewed.

A numerical study is performed to examine the influence of a non-uniform magnetic field on the thermo-hydraulic behaviour of a ferrofluid. The analysis is done in the context of a differentially heated semi-circular annulus where a magnetic dipole with its distinct location and dipole strength is used to obtain different configurations. The field variables are computed by solving the coupled set of flow equations, energy equations and the Maxwell’s magneto-statics equations. A detailed description is provided on the flow and thermal response after observing different parameters at both global and local scale. Comparison of streamlines and isotherms with a reference case of natural convection concludes that the recirculation zones are responsible for the increased velocity and heat transfer magnitudes. Another key finding of the present work is about the possibility to locally improve the thermal performance of heat exchangers at any desired position along the circumference.