Title: Investigation of four geometrical parameters on thermal stratification of cold water tanks by exergy analysis

Authors: Moien Farmahini-Farahani

Addresses: School of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019, USA

Abstract: In this paper, effects of four geometrical parameters of tanks on the thermal stratification within a cold storage tank are analysed. Nine two-dimensional models have been numerically simulated by using the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) program, fluent. Realistic boundary and initial conditions are applied. The level of thermal stratification in each model has been quantified by means of exergy analyses. The results obtained show increasing the tanks Aspect Ratio (AR) of height to width, decreasing inlet/outlet diameter, moving the inlet/outlet position to the outer extremities of the tank, and increasing input angle towards top of the tank all lead in increasing levels of thermal stratification.

Keywords: cold storage tanks; thermal storage; thermal stratification; second law; thermodynamics; exergy analysis; CFD; computational fluid dynamics.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEX.2012.046814

International Journal of Exergy, 2012 Vol.10 No.3, pp.332 - 345

Received: 11 Aug 2011
Accepted: 23 Sep 2011
Published online: 10 May 2012 *

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