Ingenieria

Advanced Thermal Energy Storage Heat Transfer Study with Use of Comsol and Matlab

Background
Thermal energy storage has gained increasing attention in the field of energy efficiencyimprovement and advanced system management. The caveat in latent heat based storage system is the low thermal conduction of the storage material. One possible means of heat transferenhancement is through extension of the heat exchange surface area.

Thesis/Learning objectives
After the thesis has been performed the student should be able to:
- use CAD,Comsol and Matlab in a more proficient way
- perform heat transfer analysis
- develop engineering acuity
- write conference paper

Method of attack
The target of the thesiswork is to carry out an advanced heat transfer analysis for different heat exchanger types for use in a thermal energy storage system. The study will mainly focus on: different heatexchanger geometric designs/configurations, different heat transfer media, different storage media. Parametric studies that will be performed are inlet temperature, inlet mass flow rate, andthermal behavior of storage material. The students will look into possibilities of combining Comsol with Matlab to perform an automated model.

Preliminary proposed time schedule,including milestones and dates for intermediate reports

1. Create heat exchangers on CAD. 1 month
2. Build heat transfer model with Comsol. 1 month
3. Perform heat transfer performancestudy. 1 month
- Submit outline of thesis paper.
4. Automate parametric study through scripting and use of Matlab. 1 month
5. Post processing and data analysis. 1 month
6. Simulationdocumenting and report writing. 1 month

Supervisor at KTH, Department of Energy Technology

Justin Chiu
justin.chiu@energy.kth.se
Off: +46 (0)87907476
cell: +46 (0)733289110