Thermo-Mechanical Investigations of Packed Beds for High Temperature Heat Storage: Uniaxial Compression Test Experiments and Particle Discrete Simulations

• Main Author: Philipp Knödler
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2019-04-01
• Series: Applied Sciences
• Subjects: thermal energy storage; thermo-mechanics; packed bed; uniaxial compression test
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/9/8/1600

Thermal energy storage (TES) systems are central elements for various types of new power plant concepts and industrial processes. Depending on the specific application, energy storage systems based on sensible heat transfer with packed beds as storage inventory are a promising storage technology. Due to thermal expansion and shrinking of the packed bed’s particles during cyclic thermal charging and discharging, high technical risks arise and possibly lead to material failure. In order to accurately design the TES, suitable tools for calculating thermo-mechanical induced forces and stresses are mandatory. For this purpose, different model approaches and tools are available. Continuum models offer time-efficient simulation results but need proper parametrization, which usually requires extensive experimental effort. This paper focuses on laying the groundwork on how to facilitate the effort for the parametrization of a continuum model by deploying a discrete particle model in order to simulate soil mechanical experiments. In this context, a specifically designed test rig is introduced, which is applied for the validation of the discrete particle model.