Rational analysis of mass, momentum, and heat transfer phenomena in liquid storage tanks under realistic operating conditions: 1. Basic formulation

This paper presents a computer code that analyses the performance of storage tanks using water as the working fluid. The new aspects of our work include the following items: (a) the transient Navier-Stokes equations are expressed in two-dimensional Cartesian and cylindrical coordinates, under the as...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Solar energy 1992-08, Vol.49 (2), p.87-94
Main Authors: Parrini, F., Vitale, S., Alabiso, M., Castellano, L.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
142000 - Solar Energy- Heat Storage- (1980-)
990200 - Mathematics & Computers
Applied sciences
computer aided analysis
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
Computers
CONTAINERS
Energy
ENERGY LOSSES
ENERGY TRANSFER
Exact sciences and technology
FRICTION
GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS//MATHEMATICS, COMPUTING, AND INFORMATION SCIENCE
HEAT PUMPS
HEAT TRANSFER
LOSSES
MASS TRANSFER
MOMENTUM TRANSFER
Natural energy
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
SIMULATION
SOLAR ENERGY
Solar energy storage
SPACE HVAC SYSTEMS
Storage
TANKS
tanks (storage)
THERMAL DIFFUSIVITY
THERMAL ENERGY STORAGE EQUIPMENT
THERMODYNAMIC PROPERTIES
VISCOSITY
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Description
Summary:This paper presents a computer code that analyses the performance of storage tanks using water as the working fluid. The new aspects of our work include the following items: (a) the transient Navier-Stokes equations are expressed in two-dimensional Cartesian and cylindrical coordinates, under the assumption of the Boussinesq approximation, (b) the effective viscosity and thermal diffusivity are evaluated by using a simplified form of the Deardorff turbulence model, (c) the energy equation is solved over a domain which includes the tank and a large portion of the surrounding soil, (d) some properly defined source terms have been introduced in the governing equations to describe inlet/outlet devices inside the tank, and localized friction losses, and (e) the boundary conditions are time-dependent to correctly describe the daily heat exchanges between tank, solar collectors and heat pumps for space conditioning. The DF technique and an improved formulation of the MAC method are used to solve the conservation equations. Comparisons with literature studies indicate discrepancies between 0.02 and 0.5%. The results of several tests simulating realistic operating conditions will be shown in the second part of the paper [29].
ISSN:0038-092X
1471-1257
DOI:10.1016/0038-092X(92)90142-W