Performance response of packed-bed thermal storage to cycle duration perturbations

Operational guidelines are developed, and it is found that packed beds are more resilient to changes in available energy if the store is not suddenly over-charged (i.e. longer perturbations), and if the steady-state cycle duration is relatively long. Furthermore, using the gas exit temperature to control cycle duration reduces the impact of perturbations on the performance, and reduces the time to return to steady-state operation.