Study On The Heat Transfer Characteristics Of The Partial Freeze-up Ice-on-Coil Of Conductive Plastics

Ice thermal storage in air conditioning system has been intensively used to shift the energy demand of cooling plants in practical projects mainly because of its compactness and outstanding social and economic benefits.The paper summarizes the status of the development and application of the ice thermal storage. Based on the analysis of the traditional thermal storage, the partial freeze-up of ice-on-coil used conductive plastics is proposed.A numerical model, based on the control volume method, is developed for the freezing and melting of the ice-on-coil thermal storage tank. The model is able to simulate both charging and discharging modes. Furthermore, the impacts of the geometric dimensions of the coils, the inlet temperature and the flow velocity of the secondary fluid on the charge/discharge modes were discussed. A comparison of the total freeze-up and the partial freeze-up has also been made.An experimental apparatus has been set up start from scratch and some experiments have been done to study the heat transfer characteristics of the ice-on-coil tank. The comparison of the theoretical predictions and the experimental data has been made and the disagreements between them are also analyzed.The project of the application of the conductive plastics for the partial freeze-up on ice-on-coil tank is useful to further develop the application of conductive plastics and to improve heat transfer of the ice thermal storage.