Experimental investigation of thermal de-stratification in rock bed TES systems for high temperature applications

Solar energy fluctuates so much that it cannot promote continuous use. Integration of Thermal Energy Storage (TES) with solar energy collection devices has the potential of making solar energy available on demand. Thermal energy can be stored in a bed of rocks at temperatures suitable for applications like cooking, boiling space heating, etc. During charging, temperature stratification is observed in the bed. In a stratified system, if the heat is used immediately, then it is possible to extract heat at reasonably high temperature from the top. For cases where the system is to be used after sometime (later at night or the following morning), the high temperature heat at the top is observed to degrade as the system tries to establish thermal equilibrium irrespective of the bed height. The average rate of heat loss from the TES unit to the ambient is found to increase with increasing average bed temperatures.