Improvement of thermal stratification in a storage tank by the integration of a porous layer

Abstract

In this work, the effect of inserting a porous layer in a cylindrical tank on the storage time and thermal stratification during the charge phase was numerically studied. The flow is governed by the Navier Stokes equations in the fluid region, Darcy Brinkman model in the porous region, and the thermal field by the energy equation. The finite volume method is used to solve the governing equation system of our problem. The accuracy of the numerical results has been validated with the works found in the literature, and a good agreement has been found. The porous layer thickness effect on the storage time and the thickness of the thermocline zone was presented. The results show that the insertion of porous media serves to promote the thermal storage time of about 49.35%. Also, the use of porous media serves to reduce the thickness of the thermocline zone by about 34.5% compared to the base case (without porous media).