A numerical study of transient mixed convection flows in a thermal storage tank
Abstract
A numerical technique based on the marker and cell method is used to study the transient, two-dimensional mixed convection flows in a thermal storage tank, employing governing equations which are laminar, natural convection flow equations based on the Boussinesq approximations. Typical transient temperature and velocity distributions are presented, and the effect of inflow and outflow configurations on the storage tank thermal performance is investigated. Although it is found that the device can store energy at a faster rate when hot water is discharged into the tank from the top, and colder water is extracted from the bottom, the either vertical or horizontal discharge direction into and from the tank have negligible effect on thermal storage efficiency despite the apparent effect on flow patterns.
- Publication:
-
American Society of Mechanical Engineers
- Pub Date:
- November 1981
- Bibcode:
- 1981asme.meetQQ...C
- Keywords:
-
- Computational Fluid Dynamics;
- Convective Flow;
- Heat Storage;
- Multiphase Flow;
- Solar Heating;
- Storage Tanks;
- Transient Heating;
- Boussinesq Approximation;
- Laminar Flow;
- Mesh;
- Thermodynamic Efficiency;
- Two Dimensional Flow;
- Velocity Distribution;
- Fluid Mechanics and Heat Transfer