CHARACTERIZATION OF SPECIFIC HEAT AND MECHANICAL PROPERTIES FOR GRANULAR HEAT STORAGE MATERIALS

2018-12-31
Baker, Derek Keıth
Johnson, Evan Fair
The GUNAM-ODAK research group is developing Thermal Energy Storage (TES) technologies for Concentrated Solar Power systems. Focus is on solid-particle (granular) TES materials such as silica sand due to their high melting temperatures and low costs. In the proposed work, the experimental equipment needed to characterize some of the most important properties of TES materials will be constructed, with the goal of characterizing new materials and providing accurate inputs for numerical modeling. Specifically, tests for the specific heat capacity and mechanical properties related to granular flow will be built. Furthermore, experiments will be built to classify the heat transfer in a gravity-fed granular flow between heated parallel plates, and subsequently the geometry will be enhanced to induce mixing and increase heat transfer. With the accurate material property data and validation data from the parallel plate tests, an accurate and trusted numerical model can be achieved in the future, and various TES devices can be modeled, including solar receivers and particle-fluid heat exchangers.

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Citation Formats
D. K. Baker and E. F. Johnson, “CHARACTERIZATION OF SPECIFIC HEAT AND MECHANICAL PROPERTIES FOR GRANULAR HEAT STORAGE MATERIALS,” 2018. Accessed: 00, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://hdl.handle.net/11511/59026.