Experimental investigations on the influence of ice floating in an internal melt ice-on-coil tank

In this paper, the discharge of an experimental ice-storage tank is analyzed. The storage tank is an internal melt-ice-on-coil system. The discharge process has been studied for different mass flow rates and supply temperatures in the range from 10 °C to 15 °C. The results indicate that once the ice breaks and floats toward the top of the tank, convection in the ice/water mixture is enhanced and the heat transfer fluid in the top coils becomes colder than in the bottom coils. Thus, an increase of the cooling power is generally observed around the ice-breaking point. Two correlations have been developed to reproduce the effect of the mass flow rate and supply temperature on the discharge duration and the mean cooling power.

► Discharge tests of an experimental ice-storage tank.
► Temperature measurements of the phase-change material and of the heat transfer fluid.
► Duration and cooling power correlated with mass flow rate and supply temperature.
► Ice breaking and floating is analyzed.