Numerical Simulation of Thermal Storage by Latent and Sensible Heat in a Porous Vertical Channel: Performance Analysis and Comparison

This work proposes a two-dimensional numerical analysis of storage material properties—thermal mass and energy density—in a vertical channel filled with porous media for two storage modes: sensible and latent. The porous channel, into which air flows at low speed, is limited by two walls: one is heated with a constant uniform heat flux, while the other is assumed to be adiabatic. The conservation equations, using a model with two temperatures and involving the Darcy-Brinkman law, describe the behavior of the simplified system. The mathematical model, thus formed, is solved using COMSOL. Glass beads (sensible) and especially encapsulated PCMs (latent) where investigated. Numerical simulations showed that latent heat provides the advantage of improving the thermal inertia and the energy density of the system while controlling the temperature of the porous domain.