THE EFFECT OF TANK GEOMETRY ON THERMALLY STRATIFIED SENSIBLE HEAT-STORAGE SUBJECT TO LOW-REYNOLDS-NUMBER FLOWS

In a theoretical and experimental investigation into the thermal perfo rmance of stratified hot water stores, a transient three-dimensional f inite-volume based model was validated by comparison with measured tem peratures from a series of thirty-two experiments in which the inlet v elocities, temperatures and initial store stratification profiles were varied. A parametric analysis ascertained the effect of inlet and out let port locations on store performance for a range of operating condi tions. The effects of finite volume size on predicted levels of entrai nment and diffusion in the inlet region are reported. (C) 1998 Elsevie r Science Ltd. All rights reserved.