Thermal Characterization of Prototypical Integral Collector Storage Systems With Immersed Heat Exchangers

Abstract

Natural convection is measured in an enclosure that represents an integral collector storage system (ICS) with an immersed tube-bundle heat exchanger. Heat transfer coefficients for bundles of 240 tubes contained in a thin enclosure of aspect ratio of 9.3:1 and inclined at 30 deg to the horizontal are obtained for a range of transient operating modes and pitch-to-diameter ratios of 1.5, 2.4, and 3.3. Results for isothermal and stratified enclosures yield a correlation for the overall Nusselt number NuD=(2.45±0.03)RaD0.188,230≤RaD≤9800. The characteristic temperature difference in the Rayleigh number is that between the average water temperature within the bundle and the tube wall temperature. Nusselt numbers are three times larger than those for a similarly configured single-tube and an eight-tube bundle. This increase is attributed to stronger fluid motion within the bundle and higher overall large scale circulation rates in the enclosure.