Experimental Investigation of Sensible Thermal Energy Storage Systems in Building Pillars

This work presents the experimentally carried out performance investigation of three lab-scale solid sensible heat storage (SHS) models. The models analysed are of shell-and-tube type configuration, in which the SHS material is placed in the shell region and the heat transfer fluid (HTF) is allowed to pass through the tubes. Thermal performances such as complete and effective charging/discharging times of three different models viz. Cuboid shaped concrete block with concentric arrangement of Copper tubes (termed as M1), Cuboid shaped concrete block with staggered arrangement of Galvanized Iron tubes (termed as M2) and Cylinder shaped concrete block with concentric arrangement of Galvanized Iron tubes (termed as M3) designed for a storage capacity of 21.2 MJ each are studied. The temperature difference between the heat transfer fluid (HTF) and the storage model is fixed at 30℃.