New Perspective of Thermal Effect of a Single- Tank Thermocline Storage System for CSP Plants

This paper reports a study on the thermal energy storage in a thermocline tank having a solid filler material. A comprehensive one-dimensional non-thermal equilibrium model is considered and is solved using method of characteristics for the energy storage investigation in a single tank packed bed thermocline storage system. In this present study, the governing equations are approached from a new numerical method perspective. The governing equations are reduced to dimensionless forms, which allow a universal application of the solution. The dimensionless equations, which are as a system of hyperbolic type, are solved numerically by the method of characteristics.