Numerical Analysis of a Thermal Storage Tank as Part of a 20kW Solar/gas Adsorption Air Conditioning System
Résumé
The environmental conscience is bringing up significant methods and techniques to save energy and substitute the fossil fuel resources by renewable ones. The adsorption air conditioning system at LES-UFPB has been projected by this point of view, as it is powered by solar energy. Together with it, there is a thermal storage tank whose function is to store thermal energy as long as possible, since the solar radiation changes throughout the day. This article presents a tri dimensional numerical analysis, run in Fluent CFD software, looking for the effect of inlets and outlets flow on velocity and temperature fields inside the thermal storage tank. A grid independence study was carried out and the results of velocity and temperature fields at both transient and steady flow were presented and discussed.