Prediction of the discharging time of a latent heat thermal energy storage system with a UA approach

Designing latent heat thermal energy storage systems is a cumbersome task and the estimation of the performance of such a storage system normally involves experiments and detailed numerical simulations. Analytical, empirical and simplified numerical models are much faster but subject to large uncertainties. Even the prediction of the performance of an existing latent heat thermal energy storage system under different boundary conditions is often not possible in an easy way. Therefore, we present an analytical method - the UA approach - to predict the discharging (solidification) time of a flat plate latent heat thermal energy storage system. A special feature of the UA approach is that one can incorporate experimental or numerical results to improve the prediction of the performance under a variety of boundary conditions or material properties. The UA approach was tested for a variation of the Stefan number (Ste), the Biot number (Bi), the number of transfer units (NTU) and the heat transfer fluid and was compared to the results of a validated numerical model. The results are promising, especially for small Ste. In addition, the prediction of performance for a high thermal heat conductivity of the phase change material based on a numerical reference solution with a low thermal conductivity worked remarkable well.