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Notes:
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This work aims at designing a thermal energy storage (TES) using air as heat transfer medium, efficient mainly for
free-cooling but also for other applications, improving the low heat transfer rates dues to the thermal conductivity of
the materials usually employed in these systems, phase change materials (PCM). In this paper, free-cooling means the
storage of cold from the night to be used during the day to cool down a room. An experimental set-up has been constructed
to simulate the application. The loading and unloading processes (melting and freezing of the PCM) have two
disadvantages: a relative long duration, in the range from 3 to 8 h, and a very high power consumption of the fans.
Using a porous matrix of graphite where the PCM is embedded, both handicaps can be noticeably overcome. The application
is studied, both experimentally and numerically.
This work was partially funded by the Spanish project DPI2002-04082-C02-01 2003-2005 (Plan Nacional de Investigación Científica, Desarrollo e Innovación Tecnológica 2000–2003), for the Government of Aragón (DGA) and the Research Vicerectorate of the University of Zaragoza. |
