Transient Response of a Stratified Thermal Storage Tank to the Variation of Inlet Temperature

This paper deals with approximate analytical solutions for the two-region one-dimensional model describing the charging process of stratified thermal storage tanks at variable inlet temperature with momentum-induced mixing. An arbitrarily increasing inlet temperature is decomposed into inherent step changes and intervals of continuous change. Each continuous interval is approximated as a finite number of piecewise linear functions, which admits an analytical solution for perfectly mixed region. Using the Laplace transform, the temperature profiles in plug flow region with both the semi-infinite and adiabatic ends are successfully derived in terms of well-defined functions. The effect of end condition on the solution proves to be negligible under the practical operating conditions. For a Quadratic variation of inlet temperature, the approximate solution employing a moderate number of pieces agrees excellently with the exact solution.