Mingyang Wu

Bio: Mingyang Wu is an academic researcher from Huazhong University of Science and Technology. The author has contributed to research in topics: Thermal energy storage & Phase-change material. The author has an hindex of 2, co-authored 2 publications receiving 6 citations.

Pilot-scale demonstration of advanced adiabatic compressed-air energy storage

Abstract: Abstract Experimental and numerical results from the world’s first pilot-scale advanced adiabatic compressed air energy storage plant with combined sensible/latent thermal-energy storage are presented. The combined thermal-energy storage was composed of sensible and latent units with maximum capacities of 11.6 MWhth and 171.5 kWhth, respectively. The latent thermal-energy storage consisted of a steel tank with 296 stainless-steel tubes encapsulating an Al–Cu–Si alloy as phase-change material. The combined thermal-energy storage was investigated using four charging/discharging cycles with durations of about 3 h each and air inflow temperatures of up to 566 °C. The experimental results showed that the latent thermal-energy storage reduced the drop in the air outflow temperature during discharging. Minor leaks of the phase-change material were traced to the welding seams in the encapsulation as well as to holes required to insert resistance temperature detectors. Analysis of the leaked phase-change material revealed degradation and/or phase separation, which were attributed to the initial off-eutectic composition of and impurities in the phase-change material and resulted in a reduced heat of fusion. Simulations predicted the performance of the combined thermal-energy storage with good overall accuracy. Discrepancies were put down to changes in the thermophysical properties.

Effect of copper foam fin (CFF) shapes on thermal performance improvement of the latent heat storage units

Abstract: To overcome the poor thermal change of Phase Change Material (PCM), Copper Foam Fin (CFF) was innovatively utilized to enhance the PCM heat transfer capability and improve the thermal performance of vertical shell-and-tube latent heat storage units (LHSUs). Three CFF shapes, including annular CFF (ACFF), longitudinal CFF (LCFF) and compound CFF (CCFF), were designed with the same filling ratio of 30%. A contrastive experiment with three flow rates was conducted to evaluate the heat transfer capacity of LHSUs integrated with three CFF shapes. Experimental results showed the CFF shape had the large effects on the thermal performance of LHSU and that ACFF showed the most excellent thermal performance. Compared with LCFF and CCFF, adding ACFF could increase the melting rates by 14.1% and 3.9%, the solidification rates by 10.1% and 2.7%, and the thermal efficiency by 21.9% and 42.0%, respectively. And ACFF and CCFF units showed better performance in the liquid interface distribution and the temperature uniformity. Moreover, the volume flow rate had the small influence on the temperature response rate, but could improve the thermal efficiency significantly.

Effect of copper foam fin (CFF) shapes on thermal performance improvement of the latent heat storage units

Abstract: To overcome the poor thermal change of Phase Change Material (PCM), Copper Foam Fin (CFF) was innovatively utilized to enhance the PCM heat transfer capability and improve the thermal performance of vertical shell-and-tube latent heat storage units (LHSUs). Three CFF shapes, including annular CFF (ACFF), longitudinal CFF (LCFF) and compound CFF (CCFF), were designed with the same filling ratio of 30%. A contrastive experiment with three flow rates was conducted to evaluate the heat transfer capacity of LHSUs integrated with three CFF shapes. Experimental results showed the CFF shape had the large effects on the thermal performance of LHSU and that ACFF showed the most excellent thermal performance. Compared with LCFF and CCFF, adding ACFF could increase the melting rates by 14.1% and 3.9%, the solidification rates by 10.1% and 2.7%, and the thermal efficiency by 21.9% and 42.0%, respectively. And ACFF and CCFF units showed better performance in the liquid interface distribution and the temperature uniformity. Moreover, the volume flow rate had the small influence on the temperature response rate, but could improve the thermal efficiency significantly.