Thermocline Thickness Evaluation on Stratified Thermal Energy Storage Tank of Co-generated District Cooling Plant

Temperature distribution of water inside of thermal storage tank reflects the condition of cooling energy stored in the tank. It can be used to define important parameters required for evaluation the performance of thermal storage tank. In this study, the thermocline thickness was evaluated for two cases of charging cycles: case I at 393 m3 / hr and case II at 524 m3 / hr. Hourly data were used for the study. Curve fitting approach was used to plot the temperature distribution profiles. Results obtained revealed that the fitting function enabled quantification of thermocline thickness of the thermal storage tank. The parameters that were determined are average cool-warm water temperatures and cool water depth in the tank. The approach offer an advantage to determine the thermocline thickness based on functionally relationship of temperature distribution profile. Results obtained shown that thermocline thickness increases at the higher flow rate. This was due to increased mixing of cool and warm water. It was also noted that thicker thermocline occurred in the region nearby the inlet diffuser. The findings indicate that the operating thermal energy storage as performing as a stratified tank.