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Corresponding Author

Helaly, Hesham

Subject Area

Mechanical Power Engineering

Article Type

Original Study

Abstract

Theoretical and experimental investigation on the thermal energy storage of an open adsorption system is presented. Laboratory experiments have been conducted, using silica gel as adsorbent, to study the effect of flow rate and inlet relative humidity on the amount of energy stored. The theoretical model, used to describe the mass and energy transfers in the system, was solved using COMSOLTM software. The model was validated against laboratory experiments performed at varying conditions. Temperature and energy density profiles during the adsorption process have been analyzed for various conditions. Results show that the storage density increases with the increase of the flow rate. However, at higher flow rates lower discharge temperatures are obtained. So, an optimization is recommended before choosing the operating flow rate. Furthermore, results show that the higher the air inlet relative humidity, the higher the energy density and the higher the discharge temperature. The maximum energy density obtained for a bed volume of 5.09 10-4 m3 is 325.8 MJ/m3. For the predefined working conditions and assumptions, the numerical solution shows satisfied agreement with the experimental measurements.

Keywords

Adsorption; Thermal Energy Storage; Silica gel, Heat and mass transfer; COMSOL Multi-physics

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