• Solar Energy
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.33-43
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• 1999

The study on ice thermal storage system is to improve total system performance and increase the economical efficiency in actual all-conditioning facilities. To obtain the high charging and discharging efficiencies in ice thermal storage system, the improvement of thermal stratification is essential, therefore the process flow must be piston flow in the cylindrical type. With the relation of the aspect ratio(H/D) in the storage tank, the stratification is formed better as inlet flow rate is smaller. If the inlet and the outlet port are settled at the upside and downside of the storage tank, higher storage rate could be obtainable. In case that the flow directions inside the thermal storage tank are the upward flow in charging and the downward in discharging, thermal stratification is improved because the thermocline thickness is maitained thin and the degree of stratification increases respectively. In the charging process, in case of inlet flow rate the thermal stratification has a tendency to be improved with the lower flow rate and smaller temperature gradient in case of inlet temperature, the large temperature difference between inflowing water and storage water are influenced from the thermal conduction. The effect of the reference temperature difference is seen differently in comparison with the former study for chilled and hot water. In the discharging process, the thermal stratification is improved by the effect of the thermal stratification of the charging process.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.78-85
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• 2013

A primary objective in creating a stratified thermal storage is to maintain the thermodynamic quality of energy, so thermally stratified energy can be extracted at temperatures required for target activities. The separation of the thermal energy in heat stores to layers with different temperatures, i.e., the thermal stratification is a key factor in achieving this objective. This paper introduces different methods that have been proposed to characterize the thermal stratification in heat stores. Specifically, this paper focuses on the methods that can be used to determine the ability of heat stores to promote and maintain stratification during the process of charging, storing and discharging. In addition, based on methods using thermal stratification indices, the degrees of stratification of stored energy in Lyckebo rock cavern in Sweden were compared and the applicability of the methods was investigated.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.211-217
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• 2004

Effect of a solid insert on thermal stratification in the natural convection enclosure is numerically investigated. The enclosure consists of two differently heated vertical walls and two adiabatic horizontal walls. A solid insert is located in the middle of the enclosure. The non-dimensional governing equations are solved by using the SIMPLER algorithm. The computations are carried out with the variations of thermal conductivity, width and height of the solid insert. The Prandtl number of the fluid in an enclosure is fixed at Pr=0.71, Two cases of Rayleigh number are considered in the present study, i.e., Ra:10$^3$ and 10$^{6}$ . The thermal stratification attenuates as thermal conductivity, width, and height of the solid insert are increased. As the thermal conductivity ratio of a solid insert to fluid increases beyond (equation omitted)10$^3$, the thermal stratification ratio shows an asymptotic value.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.188-195
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• 2012

Using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code, FLUENT, the present study investigated the thermal stratification behavior of Lyckebo storage in Sweden, which is the very first large-scale rock cavern for underground thermal energy storage. Heat transfer analysis was carried out for numerical cases with different temperatures of the surrounding rock mass in order to examine the effect of rock mass heating due to periodic storage and production of thermal energy on thermal stratification and heat loss. The change of thermal stratification with respect to time was quantitatively examined based on an index of the degree of stratification. The results of numerical simulation showed that in the early operational stage where the surrounding rock mass was less heated, the stratification of stored thermal energy was rapidly degraded over time, but the degradation and heat loss tended to reduce as the surrounding rock mass was heated during a long period of operation.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2003.04a
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• pp.1833-1838
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• 2003

In the nuclear power plant, emergency core coolant system(ECCS) is furnished at reactor coolant system(RCS) in order to cool down high temperature water in case of emergency. However, in this coolant system, thermal stratification phenomenon can be occurred due to coolant leaking in the check valve. The thermal stratification produces excessive thermal stresses at the pipe wall so as to yield thermal fatigue crack(TFC) accident. In the present study, when the turbulence penetration occurs in the branch piping, the maximum temperature differences of fluid at the pipe cross-sections of the T-branch with thermal stratification are examine

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.169-179
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• 2000

A detailed numerical analysis of the evolution of thermal stratification in a curved piping system in a nuclear power plant is performed. A finite volume based thermal-hydraulic computer code has been developed employing a body-fitted, non-orthogonal curvilinear coordinate for this purpose. The cell-centered, non-staggered grid arrangement is adopted and the resulting checkerboard pressure oscillation is prevented by the application of momentum interpolation method. The SIMPLE algorithm is employed for the pressure and velocity coupling, and the convection terms are approximated by a higher-order bounded scheme. The thermal-hydraulic computer code developed in the present study has been applied to the analysis of thermal stratification in a curved duct and some of the predicted results are compared with the available experimental data. It is shown that the predicted results agree fairly well with the experimental measurements and the transient formation of thermal stratification in a curved duct is also well predicted.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2001.11b
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• pp.735-740
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• 2001

In the nuclear power plant, emergency core coolant system(ECCS) is furnished at reactor coolant system(RCS) in order to cool down high temperature water in case of emergency. However, in this coolant system, it occurs thermal stratification phenomena in case that there is the mixing of cooling water and high temperature water due to valve leakage in ECCS. This thermal stratification phenomena raises excessive thermal stresses at pipe wall. Therefore, this phenomena causes the accident that reactor coolant flows in reactor containment in the nuclear power plant due to the deformation of pipe and thermal fatigue crack(TFC) at the pipe wall around the place that it exists. Hence, in order to fundamental identification of this phenomena, it requires the experimental research of modeling test in the pipe flow that occurs thermal stratification phenomena. So, this paper models RCS and ECCS pipe arrangement and analyzes the mechanism of thermal stratification phenomena by measuring of temperature in variance with leakage flow rate in ECCS modeled pipe and Reynold number in RCS modeled pipe. Besides, results of this experiment is compared with computational analysis which is done in advance.

• Proceedings of the SAREK Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.340-345
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• 2007

The underfloor air distribution system has been attracting to architects and building owners as one of valuable system for the renovated and newly office building. In this paper, we discussed the thermal stratification profile of pressurized plenum underfloor air distribution(UFAD) according to indoor setting temperature, diffuser number, diffuser type. For this, the space of office building(H corp.) is selected for measuring the air volume of underfloor diffuser and vertical temperature profile. As a result, the thermal stratification profile is influenced by the number and type of the underfloor diffuser and thermal storage character of the underfloor. Whereas indoor setting temperature have a lower significant impact on thermal stratification.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.202-210
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• 2006

In the nuclear power plant, emergency core coolant system (ECCS) is furnished at reactor coolant system (RCS) in order to cool down high temperature water in case of emergency. However, in this coolant system, thermal stratification phenomenon can be occurred due to coolant leaking in the check valve. The thermal stratification produces excessive thormal stresses at the pipe wall so as to yield thermal fatigue crack (TFC) accident. In the present study, when the turbulence penetration occurs in the branch pipe, the maximum temperature differences of fluid at the pipe cross-sections of the T-branch with thermal stratification are examine.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.308-318
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• 2013

Thermal stratification in heat stores is essential to improve the efficiency of energy storage systems and deliver more useful energy on demand. It is generally well known that the degree of thermal stratification in heat stores varies depending on the aspect ratio (the height-to-width ratio) and size of the stores. The present study aims to investigate the effect of the aspect ratio and storage volume of rock caverns for storing hot water on thermal stratification in the caverns and heat loss to the surroundings. Heat transfer simulations using a computational fluid dynamics code, FLUENT were performed at different aspect ratios and storage volumes of rock caverns. The variation of thermal stratification with respect to time was examined using an index to quantify the degree of stratification, and the heat loss to the surroundings was evaluated. The results of the numerical simulations demonstrated that the thermal stratification in rock caverns was improved by increasing the aspect ratio, but this effect was not remarkable beyond an aspect ratio of 3-4. When the storage volume of rock caverns was large, a higher thermal stratification was maintained for a relatively longer time compared to caverns with a small storage volume, but the difference in thermal stratification between the two cases tended to decrease as the aspect ratio became larger. In addition, the numerical results showed that the heat loss to the surrounding rock tended to increase with an increase in aspect ratio because the surface area of rock caverns increased as the aspect ratio became larger. The total heat loss from multiple small caverns with a reduced storage volume per cavern was larger compared to a single cavern with the same total storage volume as that of the multiple caverns.