Thermal Storage Unit With Segmented Brick Ducts
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current thermal storage units face inefficiencies in heat energy storage and release due to limitations in geometry and material usage, leading to suboptimal storage capacity and volume requirements, which are exacerbated by environmental and cost concerns.
Innovation Solution
A thermal storage unit design featuring a stack of bricks with specific heat capacity greater than 600 J·°C−1·kg−1, arranged in superposed strata with strategically positioned ducts and closed-off openings to enhance heat transfer efficiency, maintaining a void volume fraction of 60% or less, optimizing heat exchange surfaces and fluid flow.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If the void volume fraction is reduced to increase storage capacity, then the quantity of energy storage material per unit volume increases, but the heat transfer efficiency deteriorates due to reduced fluid flow passages
Solution Approach 1:
The brick is segmented into multiple functional zones: a first portion with through-going ducts for primary heat transfer, and a second portion with blind-ended ducts for secondary heat transfer. This segmentation allows the brick to simultaneously provide high storage density and effective heat transfer pathways, resolving the contradiction between maximizing material quantity and maintaining heat transfer efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention transitions from conventional two-dimensional heat transfer surfaces to three-dimensional heat transfer volumes by incorporating blind-ended ducts that extend into the brick interior. This dimensional change creates internal heat transfer surfaces that do not occupy external void space, thereby increasing storage capacity while maintaining heat transfer efficiency.
2Ease of operation
If conventional bricks with through-going ducts are used, then heat transfer fluid flow is simplified, but heat transfer surface area is reduced limiting storage efficiency
Solution Approach 1:
The brick is divided into a first portion with through-going ducts for simplified fluid flow, and a second portion with blind-ended ducts for increased heat transfer surface area. This segmentation maintains ease of operation in the first portion while enhancing storage efficiency through the second portion's internal heat transfer surfaces.
Solution Approach 2:
The blind-ended ducts are nested within the brick interior, creating internal heat transfer surfaces that do not interfere with external fluid flow pathways. This nesting allows the brick to provide both simplified flow characteristics and enhanced heat transfer surface area simultaneously.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The design achieves high storage capacity and efficiency by maximizing heat transfer surfaces and fluid deflection, reducing the overall volume of the thermal storage unit while meeting environmental and cost constraints.
Implementation Method 1
a stack of bricks preferably made of a material which at 25° C. has a specific heat capacity higher than 600 J·° C.−1·kg−1
Implementation Method 2
The operation of storing, by exchange of heat between a stream of heat-transfer fluid and the thermal storage unit
Data Source
AI summary
Thermal storage unit including: a receptacle including orifices allowing a heat-transfer fluid to be introduced into and extracted, and a stack of bricks, arranged in the receptacle in superposed strata, each stratum having lower and upper large faces and defining a plurality of ducts opening via lower and upper openings, the stack including a pair of strata of a lower and upper stratum, the upper and lower large faces of the lower and upper stratum being separated to define a passage, placing an upper opening of a lower duct of the lower stratum in fluidic communication with at least one lower opening, entirely offset with respect to the upper opening, of at least one upper duct of the upper stratum, the lower large face of the upper stratum closing off, at least partially, the upper opening, when the upper opening is observed, along its axis, from the lower duct.