Thermo-fluidic characteristics of rotated conical heat storage tank: A numerical study

Latent heat storage is an effective method to solve the intermittency problem of solar heat utilization. However, the low thermal conductivity of phase change heat storage materials limits the heat transfer efficiency. Therefore, the method of coupling heat transfer enhancement with two optimization methods of rotation and conical design is proposed in this study. The numerical simulation method was used to reveal the phase change characteristics of different heat storage tanks under rotating conditions. The numerical model of the rotational phase change is established through the finite volume method and verified. Subsequently, the melting heat storage characteristics of cylindrical, positive cone and inverted cone heat storage tanks with rotating angular velocities of 0 rad/s and 1 rad/s are studied. The results show that the melting rate and heat storage rate increase significantly under rotating conditions. The full melting time of the inverted cone heat storage tank under rotating condition is the shortest, and the heat storage rate is the fastest, which is 0.0162 kJ/s, which is increased by 60.40% compared with the benchmark case.