<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Increase in solar fraction has been noted as one of the main goals for wider application of domestic solar thermal systems. To increase solar fraction, higher energy density thermal storage availability is a key point. In this paper phase change materials have been analysed as part of a domestic solar thermal system. Sensitivity analysis of annual simulation in <italic>TRNSYS</italic> with climate data of Riga, Latvia is used. The paper also explores better methods for evaluating phase change material (PCM) performance based on temperature measurements in PCM. The results showed that the melting point of PCM and temperature set point of an auxiliary heater have the highest sensitivity of aspects analysed in the paper. It also reports that the coefficient of variation of energy in PCM correlates well with solar fraction and can be used as a parameter to evaluate PCM’s suitability for certain applications.</p></abstract>

Increase in solar fraction has been noted as one of the main goals for wider application of domestic solar thermal systems. To increase solar fraction, higher energy density thermal storage availability is a key point. In this paper phase change materials have been analysed as part of a domestic solar thermal system. Sensitivity analysis of annual simulation in TRNSYS with climate data of Riga, Latvia is used. The paper also explores better methods for evaluating phase change material (PCM) performance based on temperature measurements in PCM. The results showed that the melting point of PCM and temperature set point of an auxiliary heater have the highest sensitivity of aspects analysed in the paper. It also reports that the coefficient of variation of energy in PCM correlates well with solar fraction and can be used as a parameter to evaluate PCM’s suitability for certain applications.

Sensitivity Analysis of Packed Bed Phase Change Material Thermal Storage for Domestic Solar Thermal System

Department of Building Energetics, Faculty of Environmental Engineering

Environmental and Climate Technologies

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Increase in solar fraction has been noted as one of the main goals for wider application of domestic solar thermal systems. To increase solar fraction, higher...

Sensitivity Analysis of Packed Bed Phase Change Material Thermal Storage for Domestic Solar Thermal System

Published Online: Jun 24, 2020

Page range: 378 - 391

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/rtuect-2020-0022

Keywords
Energy accumulation, latent heat, phase change materials

© 2020 Mikelis Dzikevics et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Sensitivity Analysis of Packed Bed Phase Change Material Thermal Storage for Domestic Solar Thermal System

Published Online: Jun 24, 2020

Page range: 378 - 391

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/rtuect-2020-0022

KeywordsEnergy accumulation, latent heat, phase change materials

© 2020 Mikelis Dzikevics et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Keywords
Energy accumulation, latent heat, phase change materials