Applied Thermal Engineering 129 (2018) 557–563

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Applied Thermal Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apthermeng

Research Paper

A novel heat transfer model of a phase change material using in solar

power plant
Qianjun Mao a,⇑, Hongzhang Chen a, Yazhou Zhao b, Hongjun Wu c,⇑
a
School of Urban Construction, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430081, China
b
Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing 100029, China
c
School of Chemical Engineering, Northeast Petroleum University, Daqing 163318, China

h i g h l i g h t s

A novel heat transfer model has been established.

Three-dimensional unsteady state and phase change material have been considered.

Melting process of the PCM has been obtained.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Concentrating solar power (CSP) plant coupling with thermal energy storage is a popular technology in
Received 12 August 2017 the recent years. The storage technology is the wave of the future in solar utilization field. A lot of schol-
Revised 7 October 2017 ars focus on studying of heat transfer performance by the experimental or simulating method. In this
Accepted 7 October 2017
paper, a novel heat transfer model of three-dimensional unsteady state heat conduction in cylindrical
Available online 9 October 2017
coordinate has been proposed based on the theoretical analysis. The most difficulty problem during
the solution is the materials, which is molten salt based on some real cases, that is a phase change mate-
Keywords:
rial (PCM) with the melting point of 494 K. The computer code of this model is written by C language in
Concentrating solar power plant
Mathematical model of heat transfer
MATLAB software. The results show that the charge time is 25200 s (about 7 h). Also, the characteristic of
Three-dimensional unsteady state melting progress of the PCM has been obtained based on this program. The aim of this paper is to develop
Cylindrical coordinate a new heat transfer model and provide a good reference to utilize solar energy.
Ó 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Energy is an important issue in the present society which has a
key impact on the environmental protection and economic devel-
opment. Fossil fuel is limited becaused of it pollution and carbon
emission problem. Renewable energy, i.e., solar energy, wind
energy, geothermal energy, have more and more concernment.
Concentrating solar power (CSP) plant coupling with the storage
tank is regarded as a wave of the future in the energy field and
valid approach to solve the energy problem. A lot of researchers
focus on improving the heat transfer performance and energy con-
version efficiency [1,2]. How to energy-saving and high-efficiency
application of the energy resource is the common challenge for
all over the world.
There are three contributions in this studying field. Firstly, some
references focus on the experimental investigation for the conver-
⇑ Corresponding authors.
E-mail addresses: maoqianjun@163.com (Q. Mao), hjwu@nepu.edu.cn (H. Wu).
sion efficiency and charge time of the CSP plant. Bayón et al. [3]
have an experimental research on a 100 kWth latent heat storage
(LHS) tank for direct steam generation system based on the loca-
tion of Plataforma Solar de Almería. The experiment is a outstand-
ing work in this field becaused of its molten salt and the setup. The
prototype of the system takes the KNO3/NaNO3 eutectic mixture as
storage material. López-Navarro et al. [4] have experimentally
investigated a versatile LHS tank capable of working with organic
PCMs. Wei et al. [5] also have experimentally researched the rapid
heat discharge for a storage system employing materials named
FNP-0090. Vaivudh et al. [6] have studied a high temperature stor-
age system based on a lab-scale cylindrical storage tank experi-
ment. Yazici et al. [7] have experimentally studied on the
solidification characteristics of paraffin in a horizontal shell-and-
tube type storage system. Castell et al. [8] have presented an
experimental study on a PCM tank of cold storage applications.
Two different configurations and different flow rates of the HTF
were studied in the paper. Secondly, an army of the researches
focus on solar radiation calculation and concentrating technology.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2017.10.038
1359-4311/Ó 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
558 Q. Mao et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 129 (2018) 557–563

Nomenclature

T temperature (°C) k thermal conductivity of the material (W=ðm  KÞ)

t time (s) q density of the material (kg=m3 )
cp specific heat (J=ðkg  KÞ) r radium of the storage tank (m)
/ variable of column coordinate system (°) z variable of column coordinate system (m)
u fluid velocity (m/s) R thermal resistance (K/W)
DV volume (m3) Flux heat of thermal conductivity (J)
Q flow of the steam (m3/s) q heat (J)
L latent heat (J/kg) M mass (kg)
s time (s)

Mao et al. [9–11] have studied on the calculation of the solar radi- each point inside the system change timely. When the material is a
ation in different air conditions and simulated the heat flux distri- kind of phase change material, then the problem is more and more
bution of a sixteen dish concentrating solar system. The results difficult.
show that the solar irradiation has an important for the optical- For an isotropic and homogeneous medium material, differen-
thermal conversion efficiency in the CSP plant. Wang et al. tial equation of heat conduction for three-dimensional unsteady
[12,13] have investigated the solar receiver and optical-chemical heat conduction in cylindrical coordinate is,
reflection in CSP plant. Finally, some projects also focus on the eco-



@T 1 @ @T 1 @ @T @ @T
nomic analysis and life cycle of the system. Laing et al. [14–16] qcp ¼ kr þ 2 k þ k ð1Þ
@t r @r @r r @u @u @z @z
have a detailed study on the system’ performance for CSP plant.
Long-term stability of the materials for a temperature of 500 °C
and 370 thermal cycles have been validated by high temperature 2.1. Mathematical model for steam side
experiment. Economic analysis and life cycle assessment of con-
crete thermal energy storage for parabolic trough power plants Assuming viscous dissipation of the steam is neglected, then
have also been investigated. that is,
Abdollahzadeh and Esmaeilpour [17] have investigated a study




@T @T 1 @ @T 1 @ @T @ @T
on the effects of surface waviness and nanoparticle dispersion on qcp þu ¼ kr þ 2 k þ k ð2Þ
solidification of Cu-water. The results show that geometric config-
@t @z r @r @r r @u @u @z @z
uration can improve heat transfer process. According to Fourier’s law of conduction, the conduct resistance
The literature survey shows that these studies focus on the heat of a adjoining unit for a cylinder object is,
transfer performance and the charge time of the CSP plant by
1 r0
experimental and numerical methods. However, the mathematical R¼ ln ð3Þ
model of heat transfer is limited to a certain extent in previous 2p k r i
researches. This maybe is due to the three-dimensional unsteady Any volume element can write as,
heat conduction is very complicated during the process of heat
DV ¼ 2prdrdz ð4Þ
transfer, especially for a phase change material. In this paper, a
new heat transfer model of three-dimensional unsteady state heat The above differential Eq. (2), when it is integrated for,
conduction in cylindrical coordinate has been proposed based on Z
 Z
 X
@T @T @T 1 @T @T
the theoretical analysis. The phase change material (PCM) is mol- qc p þu dV ¼ k þ þ dS ¼ Flux
ten salt that is a eutectic mixture KNO3/NaNO3 with the melting DV @t @z @V @r r @ u @z @V

point of 494 K. The computer code of this model is written by C ð5Þ

language in MATLAB software. The aim of this paper is to develop
For three-dimensional object, the heat flux between this vol-
a new heat transfer model and provide a good reference to widely
ume element and adjoining element is,
utilize solar energy.
T iþ1;j  T i;j T i1;j  T i;j
Fluxup ¼ 2prdr ; Fluxdown ¼ 2prdr
Rup Rdown
2. Mathematical model ð6Þ
T i;jþ1  T i;j T i;j1  T i;j
Fluxrþdr ¼ Dz; Fluxrdr ¼ Dz
Rrþdr Rrdr
Tube-in-shell cylindrical storage tank is the best popular among
the storage tank in CSP plants. Therefore, a tube-in-shell cylindrical Therefore, the equation can be got according to the energy bal-
storage tank shown in Fig. 1 has been proposed, and the aim is to ance as,
establish the heat transfer model. It can be seen from this figure

@T @T
that the high-temperature water steam enters the cylindrical tank qcp þu DV ¼ Fluxup þ Fluxdown þ Fluxrþdr þ Fluxrdr ð7Þ
from the left side, and releases heat flux, then gets out from the @t @z
right side. A layer of insulation is provided on the outside of this By the finite difference discrete, it can rewritten as,
cylindrical tank. Fig. 2 shows that the cylindrical coordinate system
and the upper view of this tank. T nþ1
i;j  T ni;j T niþ1;j  T ni;j T niþ1;j  T ni;j T ni1;j  T ni;j
þu ¼ þ
The analysis of three-dimensional unsteady heat conduction is Dt Dz qcp DzRup qcp DzRdown
very complex than that of steady-state systems. Unsteady heat T ni;jþ1  T ni;j T ni;j1  T ni;j
conduction, referring to time-dependence of temperature fields þ þ ð8Þ
2pr Drqcp Rrþdr 2prDr qcp Rrdr
in an object, is a non-equilibrium process. That is the heat flow into
the object is not equal with the heat flow out, and temperatures at where thermal resistance, R, is written as,
 Q. Mao et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 129 (2018) 557–563 559

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of heat transfer process for a cylindrical tank.

Fig. 2. Coordinate system and upper view of the tank.




Dz Dz 1 r þ Dr @T @T 1 @ @T 1 @ @T
Rup ¼ ; Rdown ¼ ; Rrþdr ¼ ln ; qcp þu ¼ kr þ 2 k
k k 2p k r @t @z r @r @r r @u @u
1 r

2
Rrdr ¼ ln ð9Þ @ @T @u
2pk r  Dr þ k þ ql ð14Þ
@z @z @r
When viscous dissipation of the steam is not neglected, then the
heat transfer model can be simplified as velocity distribution Further, by the finite difference discrete form, it can also rewrit-
model of laminar circular tube. And the velocity along the radium ten as,
direction is a parabolic distribution as,
T nþ1 n
i;j  T i;j T niþ1;j  T ni;j T niþ1;j  T ni;j T ni1;j  T ni;j
þu ¼ þ
uðrÞ ¼ Cðr20  r2 Þ ð10Þ Dt Dz qcp DzRup qcp DzRdown
T ni;jþ1  T ni;j T ni;j1  T ni;j
where u is the velocity of the steam, C is a parameter is closely þ þ
2pr Dr qcp Rrþdr 2prDr qcp Rrdr
related to the flow resistance, and r is the radium. In order to solve

the parameter of C, the cross section of the circular tube is divided l uni;jþ1  uni;j1 2
þ ð15Þ
into N section and the velocity of each section is ui , then the total cp 2 Dr
flow mass Q can be represent as,

X
N
Q¼ 2pr i ui Dr ð11Þ 2.2. Mathematical model for molten salt side
i¼1
1. When the molten salt is the solid phase
Then, the parameter C can be given according the Eqs. (10) For solid-phase molten salt, the heat transfer process only is
and (11) heat conduction. Then the equation of the heat transfer can be
Q given as according to gas-phase Eq. (15),
C ¼ PN ð12Þ
i¼1 2pr i ðr 0  r i ÞDr
2 2
T nþ1 n
i;j  T i;j T niþ1;j  T ni;j T ni1;j  T ni;j T ni;jþ1  T ni;j
¼ þ þ
Here, r i ¼ ði  0:5ÞDr, then the parameter C can be solved as, Dt qcp DzRup qcp DzRdown 2prDrqcp Rrþdr
4Q T ni;j1  T ni;j
C¼ ðr 20  r 2 Þ ð13Þ þ ð16Þ
pN2 ð2N2 þ 1ÞDr4 2pr Dr qcp Rrdr

So, the equation can be changed as: 2. When the molten salt is the solid–liquid phase
560 Q. Mao et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 129 (2018) 557–563
When the temperature is more than the melting point of the
material, the material will melt with a phase changing. Heat is
absorbed when the material changes from solid to liquid, but the
temperature is a constant.
For each unit of the molten salt, the heat flux absorbed from the
heat source can be written as,
q1 ¼ LM
where q1 is the heat flux, L is latent heat of the material, and M is
mass of the material. Meanwhile, the heat flux also can be given as,
s s s
X X X
q2 ¼ qi ¼ ðcP MDT i Þ ¼ M ðcP DT i Þ
i¼0 i¼o i¼1
where q2 is also the heat flux, cp is heat capacity of the material, and
s is phase change time. If q2 > q1 , then the phase change process is
over. If q2 < q1 , then the phase change process is in the progress.
When the molten salt is all in the liquid phase, the temperature
will raise with increasing heat flux absorbed.
2.3. Validation of mathematical model
In order to verify the accuracy of this mathematical model, the
calculation process based on the parameters from the literature
[18] has been performed. The main parameters are following: tube
inner radius with 0.003 m, 0.004 m, and 0.005 m, tube thickness of
0.001 m, charge time of 1 h, 2 h, 3 h, 4 h, and 5 h. The comparison
of the outlet air temperature between numerical results in this
Fig. 3. Calculation results of outlet air temperature for this study and the literature [18].
Fig. 4. Schematic diagram of heat transfer process for a cylindrical tank.
study and available in this literature has been shown in Fig. 3. It
can be seen from this figure that the variation between this study
and the literature is about 15%, which is a good agreement.
3. Results and discussions
ð17Þ
3.1. Parameter description
To obtain the heat transfer performance of the storage tank
based on the above model, a physical model with the certain
ð18Þ parameters is proposed and shown in Fig. 4.
Relative parameters of the storage tank in this research are as
follows:
(1) For the PCM: PCM in this paper is 54% KNO3/46% NaNO3
eutectic mixture with a melting point of 221 °C.
(2) For the storage tank: the diameter of the steam pipe is 100
mm, the thickness of the steel pipe is 1 mm, the diameter of
the storage tank is 200 mm, the length of the storage tank is
1000 mm.
(3) For the steam: the input temperature of the steam is 823 K,
the thermal conductivity is 0:061 W=ðm  KÞ, the specific
heat is 2170 J=ðkg  KÞ, the density is 0:266 kg=m3 , kinematic
viscosity is 0:00010807 m2 =s, the mass is 0:0042 kg=s.
(4) For the steel: the thermal conductivity is 54 W=ðm  KÞ, the
specific heat is 460 J=ðkg  KÞ, the density is 7850 kg=m3 .
 Q. Mao et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 129 (2018) 557–563 561

Fig. 5. Calculation results for temperature distribution for different charge times.
562 Q. Mao et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 129 (2018) 557–563

Fig. 6. Calculation results for liquid fraction for different charge times.
 Q. Mao et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 129 (2018) 557–563
(5) For the molten salt: the original temperature of the steam is
483 K, the latent heat is 69,750 J/kg, the melting point is 493
K, the mass rate is 192:26 kg, the thermal conductivity for
the solid phase is 0:5 W=ðm  KÞ, the specific heat for the
solid phase is 1420 J=ðkg  KÞ, the density for the solid phase
is 2040 kg=m3 , the thermal conductivity for the liquid phase
is 0:3 W=ðm  KÞ, the specific heat for the liquid phase is
1500 J=ðkg  KÞ, the density for the liquid phase is
1950 kg=m3 . All the parameters are only an example for
deriving the model, and some parameters represented by
the Ref. [3].
3.2. Distribution results of temperature field
To obtain the heat transfer performance of this kind of material
based on the above model, the computer code of the present model
is written by C language in MATLAB software. Fig. 5 shows that the
temperature distribution of PCM in the tank for 14 charge times,
that is 1800 s, 3600 s, 5400 s, 7200 s, 9000 s, 10,800 s, 12,600 s,
14,400 s, 16,200 s, 18,000 s, 19,800 s, 21,600 s, 23,400 s, and
25,200 s, respectively. The results show the total phase change
time is 25,200 s, about 7 h. After the phase change process is over,
the calculation program also finishes. The results also show that it
can be calculated for the three-dimensional unsteady heat conduc-
tion problem coupling with the phase change performance.
3.3. Results of liquid fraction
Fig. 6 shows that the liquid fraction of PCM in the tank for 14
charge times, that is 1800 s, 3600 s, 5400 s, 7200 s, 9000 s,
10,800 s, 12,600 s, 14,400 s, 16,200 s, 18,000 s, 19,800 s, 21,600 s,
23,400 s, and 25,200 s, respectively. The results show the phase
change performs quickly in the first half of the melting process,
and slowly in the second half of the melting process. For example,
the phase-change progress finishes about 45.76% with a charge
time of 9000 s. Meanwhile, it also can be seen from this figure that
liquid fraction ranges from 0% to 9.09% in the charge time interval
(0–1800 s), but 99.35–100% in the charge time interval (23,600–
25,200 s).
4. Conclusions
Theoretical researches of the three-dimensional unsteady heat
conduction problem coupling with the phase change process are
very difficult and complex. A new heat transfer model for three-
dimensional unsteady firstly has been proposed, and then the pro-
gram code is written based on MATLAB software. The following
conclusions can be obtained as: 1. In this new heat transfer model,
the viscous dissipation of the steam and the phase change material
have been considered. 2. For this case of this paper, the total phase
change time is 25,200 s, about 7 h. 3. The results show that the
phase change process is stronger in the first half time than the sec-
ond half.
563
Acknowledgment
This work is supported by the National Natural Science Founda-
tion of China (Nos.51406033 and 21476046). Besides, a very spe-
cial acknowledgement is made to the editors and referees who
made important comments to improve this paper.
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