Thermal Energy Storage TankTeam: Jon Darley, Jose Izurieta, Richard Peterson, Nicholas Reeder, and David Toth

BACKGROUND:‐ Thermal Energy Storage systems have many applications and use a wide variety of technologies.

‐ The most common type of TES systems are tanks that take in energy from various resources

such as; exhaust, solar, and water waste.

‐ Many TES tanks develop a stratified environment which allows for specific temperatures of the

internal fluid to be drawn off.

GOALS:‐ The primary goal of our project was to design and manufacture a TES system on a lab scale such

that it can be used and manipulated for various tests.

‐ In the long run, we hope the test done from this system can be used to study the efficiency of

full scale TES systems.

TEMPERATURE MEASUREMENT SYSTEM:‐ The temperature measurement system uses 12 k‐type thermocouples spaced at even intervals

down the center of the tank.

‐ Every 5 seconds a temperature reading was taken and the stratified layer was studied.

HEAT EXCHANGER COILS:‐ The coils used for the heat exchanger are a concentric design. The inside coil is 2 inches in

diameter and the outside coil is 4 inches in diameter.

‐ The pipe diameter is ¼ inch to provide significant Reynolds number to maximize heat transfer.

OTHER DESIGN FEATURES:‐ The insulation is one layer of R‐30 lined with reflective insulation foil.

‐ The bulkhead fittings are lined with silicone to make them water tight.

‐ The tank is c900 grade plastic.

‐ The caps are cast iron.

TESTING RESULTS:‐ The testing shows that our tank can create and measure a stratified layer within the

tank.

CONCLUSIONS:‐ Our group succeeded in building a TES tank with the appropriate features for creating,

testing and measuring the internal stratified environment.

SPECIAL THANKS TO:

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Left:Internal top down view of the heat exchanger coils after installation.

Right:Exterior valve and bulkhead for heat exchanger.

Left:Bulkhead and fittings which connect the external valve to the heat exchanger coils.

Right:CAD model of bulkhead.

Full assembly of TES system. Hard at work!

Advisors: Dr. Amanda Smith Ph.Dand Aowabin Rahman