学术报告会

题  目：Advances of Latent Heat Thermal Energy Storage for Concentrating Solar Power using Heat Pipes

报告人：Amir Faghri, Professor

Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Connecticut

地  点：教四楼C区211报告厅

时  间：6月8日（周六）10：00～11：30

电站设备状态监测与控制教育部重点实验室

能源动力与机械工程学院

2013年6月7日

Prof. Amir Faghri is presently the professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Connecticut. Dr. Faghri joined the University of Connecticut in 1994 and served as Head of the Mechanical Engineering Department from 1994-1998, and the Dean of the School of Engineering from 1998-2006.

Dr. Faghri has served as a principal investigator conducting research in the area of thermal management and multiphase transport phenomena for applications ranging from advanced cooling systems to alternative energy systems, including heat pipes, fuel cells, solar energy systems and thermal energy storage devices.

Dr. Faghri has authored four books, more than 300 archival technical publications (including 209 journal papers), and holds eight U.S. patents. Dr. Faghri has received numerous external research contracts and grants from the National Science Foundation, Department of Energy, and National Aeronautics & Space Administration, Department of Defense, Department of Education and various industries. Dr. Faghri is presently serving on the editorial board of seven scientific journals.

Dr. Faghri has received several honors and awards, including the American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics (AIAA) Thermophysics Award in 1998, the American Society of Mechanical Engineering (ASME) Heat Transfer Memorial Award in 1998, the ASME James Harry Potter Gold Medal In 2005, and the ASME/AIChE Max Jakob Memorial Award in 2010, which is the highest honor in the field of heat transfer. He has served as a consultant to several major research centers and corporations, including Los Alamos and Oak Ridge national laboratories, Exxon Mobil, and Intel Corporation. He presently serves on the boards of directors of both publicly-traded and private companies.

Utilization of thermal energy storage (TES) for concentrating solar power (CSP) both (i) increases the operational time of CSP power plants and (ii) reduces energy production cost. Latent heat thermal energy storage (LHTES) is of particular interest due to its high energy density relative to both sensible and chemical TES. A major disadvantage of LHTES is the low thermal conductivity of most inexpensive phase change materials (PCMs), which reduces heat transfer rates to and from the PCM. To circumvent this disadvantage, numerous research efforts have focused on reducing the thermal resistance posed by the PCM.  This presentation will review the usage of heat pipes in LHTES to increase heat transfer rates. Two areas of research are explored; (i) fundamental investigations of heat pipe-PCM heat transfer phenomena, and (ii) applications of heat pipe-PCM technology, including large scale CSP. The experimental and numerical investigations quantify the effectiveness of heat pipes in increasing PCM melting and solidification rates. Both experimental investigation and numerical modeling have shown that heat pipe-PCM systems cansignificantly improve LHTES performance, making it economically viable.  Future challenges in heat pipe-PCM technology applicable to LHTES in CSP applications, with a focus on high temperature systems, are identified and discussed.