Dynamic simulations of a honeycomb ceramic thermal energy storage in a solar thermal power plant using air as the heat transfer fluid

Thermal energy storage is a key component for the marketability of solar thermal power plants (STPP). Thermal energy storage in a solar thermal power plant is essential for the system usefulness but has been rarely studied. This paper numerically investigates the heat storage in a honeycomb ceramic thermal energy storage in a solar thermal power plant using air as the heat transfer fluid using a one-dimensional thermal energy storage model in the object-oriented modeling language Modelica. This model can be used to easily study the thermal performance of the thermal energy storage system. The simulation results agree well with experimental data for two honeycomb ceramic materials for various charging and discharging processes. The model is then used to study the influences of the honeycomb geometric parameters on the thermal energy storage and the initial storage material cost. The results show that the total honeycomb ceramic length and the total cross-sectional area have the greatest effect on the initial thermal energy storage material cost.