Design of high temperature thermal energy storage for high power levels

The storage system was designed and analyzed with the development of an iterative multi-step method. The method spans from the design of the fin, based on both empirical and geometrical information, to the heat transfer analysis of a storage system. The analysis is comprised of several steps: a heat transfer analysis of the cross-section of one tube without modeling the heat transfer fluid, a transfer from the cross-section to a simplified one-dimensional radial model and a two-dimensional axial and radial analysis coupling the axial flow of the heat transfer fluid and the radial heat transfer into the storage. The developed analysis method and the resulting storage system are presented and the comparison of different fin designs shows the suitability of each fin for different applications.