IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/renene/v212y2023icp994-1004.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Effect of initial temperature of water in a solar hot water storage tank on the thermal stratification under the discharging mode

Author

Listed:
  • Liu, Baihong
  • Gao, Wenfeng
  • Zhang, Yougang
  • Ding, Xiang
  • Li, Qiong
  • Wang, Jinsong

Abstract

Thermal stratification in a storage tank is an important factor affecting hot water output. There are many factors affecting thermal stratification, and the initial temperature in the tank is a notable one. In this paper, a typical solar hot water storage (HWS) tank, which is widely used in practical applications, has been selected to study numerically the effect of the initial temperature on the thermal stratification under the discharging mode. The flow mechanism, temperature distribution, thermal stratification, and thermal mixing mechanism in the tank are analyzed with the numerically simulated results for five initial temperatures in the tank. In addition to the qualitative observation, a quantitative analysis of the effect of the initial temperature in the tank has also been conducted in terms of several key dimensionless parameters which quantify the extent of the thermal stratification in the tank. The results show that the dimensionless exergy decreases with the dimensionless time. When the dimensionless time increases from 0.1 to 0.8, the dimensionless exergy decreases by nearly 0.4. Additionally, a higher initial temperature leads to a smaller extent of the initial mixing and a larger output rate of hot water. When the initial temperature in the tank increases from 313 K to 353 K, the output rate of hot water increases by nearly 11%. Moreover, the extent of the thermal stratification increases almost linearly with the initial temperature in the tank. When the initial temperature in the tank increases from 313 K to 353 K, a 17% increase in the thermal stratification has been achieved indicating that the initial temperature in the tank has a significant effect on the thermal stratification, which will be insightful for the better design of solar hot water systems.

Suggested Citation

  • Liu, Baihong & Gao, Wenfeng & Zhang, Yougang & Ding, Xiang & Li, Qiong & Wang, Jinsong, 2023. "Effect of initial temperature of water in a solar hot water storage tank on the thermal stratification under the discharging mode," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 994-1004.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:212:y:2023:i:c:p:994-1004
    DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2023.05.102
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148123007358
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.renene.2023.05.102?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Wang, Zilong & Zhang, Hua & Dou, Binlin & Huang, Huajie & Wu, Weidong & Wang, Zhiyun, 2017. "Experimental and numerical research of thermal stratification with a novel inlet in a dynamic hot water storage tank," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 353-371.
    2. Castell, A. & Medrano, M. & Solé, C. & Cabeza, L.F., 2010. "Dimensionless numbers used to characterize stratification in water tanks for discharging at low flow rates," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(10), pages 2192-2199.
    3. Lima, Juliana Benoni Arruda & Prado, Racine T.A. & Montoro Taborianski, Vanessa, 2006. "Optimization of tank and flat-plate collector of solar water heating system for single-family households to assure economic efficiency through the TRNSYS program," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 31(10), pages 1581-1595.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Piyatida Trinuruk & Papangkorn Jenyongsak & Somchai Wongwises, 2022. "Comparative Study of Inlet Structure and Obstacle Plate Designs Affecting the Temperature Stratification Characteristics," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-25, March.
    2. Bai, Yakai & Wang, Zhifeng & Fan, Jianhua & Yang, Ming & Li, Xiaoxia & Chen, Longfei & Yuan, Guofeng & Yang, Junfeng, 2020. "Numerical and experimental study of an underground water pit for seasonal heat storage," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 487-508.
    3. María Gasque & Federico Ibáñez & Pablo González-Altozano, 2021. "Minimum Number of Experimental Data for the Thermal Characterization of a Hot Water Storage Tank," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-16, August.
    4. De la Cruz-Loredo, Iván & Zinsmeister, Daniel & Licklederer, Thomas & Ugalde-Loo, Carlos E. & Morales, Daniel A. & Bastida, Héctor & Perić, Vedran S. & Saleem, Arslan, 2023. "Experimental validation of a hybrid 1-D multi-node model of a hot water thermal energy storage tank," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 332(C).
    5. Li, Qiong & Huang, Xiaoqiao & Tai, Yonghang & Gao, Wenfeng & Wenxian, L. & Liu, Wuming, 2021. "Thermal stratification in a solar hot water storage tank with mantle heat exchanger," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 1-11.
    6. Wang, Yanqiu & Ji, Jie & Sun, Wei & Yuan, Weiqi & Cai, Jingyong & Guo, Chao & He, Wei, 2016. "Experiment and simulation study on the optimization of the PV direct-coupled solar water heating system," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 154-166.
    7. Arteconi, A. & Hewitt, N.J. & Polonara, F., 2012. "State of the art of thermal storage for demand-side management," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 371-389.
    8. Wunvisa Tipasri & Amnart Suksri & Karthikeyan Velmurugan & Tanakorn Wongwuttanasatian, 2022. "Energy Management for an Air Conditioning System Using a Storage Device to Reduce the On-Peak Power Consumption," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(23), pages 1-19, November.
    9. Rodríguez-Hidalgo, M.C. & Rodríguez-Aumente, P.A. & Lecuona, A. & Legrand, M. & Ventas, R., 2012. "Domestic hot water consumption vs. solar thermal energy storage: The optimum size of the storage tank," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 897-906.
    10. Wanruo Lou & Lingai Luo & Yuchao Hua & Yilin Fan & Zhenyu Du, 2021. "A Review on the Performance Indicators and Influencing Factors for the Thermocline Thermal Energy Storage Systems," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-19, December.
    11. David Vérez & Emiliano Borri & Alicia Crespo & Gabriel Zsembinszki & Belal Dawoud & Luisa F. Cabeza, 2021. "Experimental Study of a Small-Size Vacuum Insulated Water Tank for Building Applications," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-11, May.
    12. Lou, Wanruo & Xie, Baoshan & Aubril, Julien & Fan, Yilin & Luo, Lingai & Arrivé, Arnaud, 2023. "Optimized flow distributor for stabilized thermal stratification in a single-medium thermocline storage tank: A numerical and experimental study," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 263(PA).
    13. Shrivastava, R.L. & Vinod Kumar, & Untawale, S.P., 2017. "Modeling and simulation of solar water heater: A TRNSYS perspective," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 126-143.
    14. Mawire, Ashmore, 2013. "Experimental and simulated thermal stratification evaluation of an oil storage tank subjected to heat losses during charging," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 459-465.
    15. Kurşun, Burak & Ökten, Korhan, 2018. "Effect of rectangular hot water tank position and aspect ratio on thermal stratification enhancement," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 116(PA), pages 639-646.
    16. Armstrong, P. & Ager, D. & Thompson, I. & McCulloch, M., 2014. "Domestic hot water storage: Balancing thermal and sanitary performance," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 334-339.
    17. Chidambaram, L.A. & Ramana, A.S. & Kamaraj, G. & Velraj, R., 2011. "Review of solar cooling methods and thermal storage options," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 15(6), pages 3220-3228, August.
    18. Erdemir, Dogan & Atesoglu, Hakan & Altuntop, Necdet, 2019. "Experimental investigation on enhancement of thermal performance with obstacle placing in the horizontal hot water tank used in solar domestic hot water system," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 187-197.
    19. Kocijel, Lino & Mrzljak, Vedran & Glažar, Vladimir, 2020. "Numerical analysis of geometrical and process parameters influence on temperature stratification in a large volumetric heat storage tank," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 194(C).
    20. Qiu, Guodong & Yu, Shipeng & Cai, Weihua, 2021. "A novel heating strategy and its optimization of a solar heating system for a commercial building in term of economy," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 221(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:212:y:2023:i:c:p:994-1004. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/renewable-energy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.