Experimental and Numerical Study of a PCM Solar Air Heat Exchanger and Its Ventilation Preheating Effectiveness
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Aalborg Universitet Experimental and numerical study of a PCM solar air heat exchanger and its ventilation preheating effectiveness Hu, Y.; Heiselberg, P.K.; Johra, H.; Guo, R. Published in: Renewable Energy DOI (link to publication from Publisher): 10.1016/j.renene.2019.05.115 Creative Commons License CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 Publication date: 2020 Document Version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Link to publication from Aalborg University Citation for published version (APA): Hu, Y., Heiselberg, P. K., Johra, H., & Guo, R. (2020). Experimental and numerical study of a PCM solar air heat exchanger and its ventilation preheating effectiveness. Renewable Energy, 145(1), 106-115. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2019.05.115 General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. ? Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. ? You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain ? You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us at [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Renewable Energy 145 (2020) 106e115 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Renewable Energy journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/renene Experimental and numerical study of a PCM solar air heat exchanger and its ventilation preheating effectiveness * Yue Hu , Per Kvols Heiselberg, Hicham Johra, Rui Guo Aalborg University, Division of Architectural Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, Thomas Manns Vej 23, DK-9220 Aalborg Øst, Denmark article info abstract Article history: This article presents a PCM solar air heat exchanger integrated into ventilated window developed to Received 15 January 2019 maximize the use of the solar energy to pre-heat the ventilated air. The system is designed to improve Received in revised form the indoor air quality and thermal comfort by continuous pre-heated air supply at a reduced energy use 8 May 2019 through the capturing and storing of solar energy. This study examines the thermodynamic behavior of Accepted 28 May 2019 the system both experimentally and numerically. This entails a full-scale experiment in climate boxes to Available online 31 May 2019 study the thermal storage and heat release ability of the facility. Accordingly, a numerical model combining heat transfer and buoyancy derived laminar flow and nonlinear thermal properties of the Keywords: fi Renewable energy PCM is built and validated with the experimental data. The model is then used for con guration opti- Phase change material mization of the PCM solar air heat exchanger to maximize the solar energy storage and the ventilation Latent heat storage pre-heating effectiveness. The results show that for a 6-h solar charging period, the optimum PCM plate Building energy conservation depth is 90 mm and the optimum air gap thickness is 6 mm. The same configuration can be used for both Solar air heat exchanger summer night cooling and winter solar energy storage applications. The total stored/released latent heat after one charging period is 93.31 MJ/m3. © 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). 1. Introduction drawn much attention within the scientific community [3]. Unlike the materials with only sensible energy storage, PCM releases/ab- Building energy use for ventilation and HVAC systems amount sorbs large amounts of latent heat during its phase transition in a to more than one-third of the total energy use in industrial coun- small temperature range. The heat capacity of PCM during the tries [1] and about 40% of the total energy use in Europe [2], and it phase transition period is much higher than the conventional shows growing trends as a result of increased thermal comfort building materials. The high energy density of the PCM offers a requirements and climate changes. It has become a burden to the large heat storage ability with a relatively small storage volume, environment and the fossil fuel resources. To diminish the fuel which makes it a good candidate for TES [4]. With adequate design consumption and carbon dioxide emission caused by building en- and choices, the phase transition of the material occurs within the ergy use, it is necessary to implement innovative technical solu- range of indoor thermal comfort, which allows direct applications tions and renewable energy resources in the built environment. of PCM in the building environment [5e7]. Many researchers have studied renewable energy such as solar Ventilative heating or cooling systems integrating PCM for energy applied in building energy systems to reduce the traditional thermal storage is a common building application, which several building energy use. Excess renewable energy is often stored in research groups have tested and studied. For example, ventilation thermal energy storage (TES) facilities with the advantages of grid night cooling during a warm summer discharges PCM units at peak shifting, building energy conservation, and the building nighttime (cold storage) and then utilize these units during day- thermal mass level improvement. time to cool down the hot outdoor air used as ventilation inlet air Phase change material (PCM) applied in TES is one of the most [8e11]. Some other strategies focus more on power load peak promising solutions for renewable energy storage and has recently shaving and demand shifting. For instance, Labat et al. [12] designed a PCM-to-air heat exchanger storage for heating, venti- lation, air conditioning (HVAC) systems to shift the cooling demand from high to low electricity price periods. The PCM is discharged * Corresponding author. (cooled down) by the HVAC systems during low electricity price E-mail address: [email protected] (Y. Hu). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2019.05.115 0960-1481/© 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Y. Hu et al. / Renewable Energy 145 (2020) 106e115 107 Nomenclature Text temperature in cold box [ C] NuL average Nussle number [dimensionless] L vertical length of PCM plates [m] Symbols RaL local Rayleigh number [dimensionless] 3 r density of material [kg/m ] Pr Prandtl number [dimensionless] fi Cp speci c heat capacity [J/(kg K)] GrL local Grashof number [dimensionless] T temperature [ C] g gravity acceleration [m/s2] t time [s] a thermal expansion coefficient [1/K] k thermal conductivity [W/(m K)] m dynamic viscosity [Pa s] 3 Q heat source [W/m ] u velocity [m/s] 2 q heat flux [W/m ] p absolute pressure [Pa] 2 3 q1 solar radiation [W/m ] F buoyancy force [N/m ] fl 2 q2 natural convection heat ux [W/m ] M molar mass [kg/mol] h average heat transfer coefficient [W/(m2∙K)] R universal gas constant [J/(mol K)] periods. The discharged PCM is then used during high price periods release processes faster. to decrease the energy demand for cooling. In winter time, PCM can This paper will experimentally and numerically study the be used directly [13e15] or indirectly [16e18] with solar energy thermal behavior of the PCM solar air heat exchanger and optimize systems or as TES integrated with other heating systems such as its configuration to achieve the highest energy efficiency of the heat pump [19], floor heating [20], and ceiling heating [21]. Studies system. For that purpose, a full-scale laboratory experiment for have shown that the integration of PCM in the building environ- testing the PCM solar air heat exchanger is conducted. Later on, the ment can significantly increase the building heat storage capacity paper presents a numerical model accounting for the heat transfer and, thereby, improve the indoor space heating energy flexibility and buoyancy effects in the solar air heat exchanger. The model is and ease the building demand-side management [22,23]. De Gracia validated by the experimental data. Finally, the verified model is et al. tested a ventilated double skin facade with PCM in the air used to optimize the configuration of the PCM heat exchanger, cavity for both cooling [24] and heating [25] purposes. They found including the depth of the PCM plates and the air gap thickness out that such PCM ventilation system can effectively prevent between PCM plates. overheating in summer and reduce the electrical consumption of the HVAC system in winter. 2. System description Solar collectors can be used for providing pre-heated air to ventilation systems. The traditional solar air collector consists of an Fig. 1 presents the configuration of the ventilated window with absorber and a transparent glass, and it facilities airflow inside the the PCM solar air heat exchanger. The ventilated window is a collector. Applications for solar collectors can be found in drying double glazing window with an air cavity between the two glazing systems for agriculture [26] and marine [27] products, packed bed layers, which allows ventilated air to go through. The solar air heat thermal storage unit [28], as well as space heating systems [29e31]. exchanger is made of parallel PCM plates separated by thin air gaps. Nevertheless, a large heat transfer area and high flow rates are The PCM plates are mounted in a wood frame with a glass on the required for good performances because of the low thermal ca- front surface.