Experimental Investigation of a Sensible Thermal Energy Storage System

Solar energy is a promising renewable source to support the growing energy demand. Sensible heat thermal energy storage (SHTES) is widely used, in practice, to supply the stored energy, in off-solar hours. These systems can be built using locally available and environment friendly materials. However, a good design as well as proper choice of materials is essential to construct an efficient and economical system. In this work, the secondary SHTES system of in-house solar air tower simulator (SATS) is investigated. The system uses hot air as heat transfer fluid and magnesium silicate pebbles as the storage material. The function of the secondary TES here is to store the waste energy from the hot air after it exits the solar convective furnace (SCF). The charging and discharging of the TES system are studied experimentally. It is observed that the secondary TES performance is satisfactory and serves as a proof of concept for future development.