NumOpTES

Thermal energy storage (TES) is a key element, for effective and efficient generation and utilization of heat where heat supply and heat demand do not match spatially and in time. Applications of TES systems are expected in several areas such as: solar heating and cooling of buildings; power generation using thermal conversion processes; seasonal storage in combination with district heating systems... The most common experimental ways to improve the heat transfer through heat storage materials, usually the so-called Phase Change Materials (PCMs), is by adding either extended surfaces or encapsulated phase change materials. In this project, our objective is to propose and analyze efficient and easy-to-implement algorithms for the simulation of the phase change process and therefore the optimization of the capsule location in order to increase the speed of the loading/unloading process. For this purpose, solutions using full order models and reduced order models (ROMs) will be performed. To achieve our objectives, it will be necessary : 1) to propose a solver to simulate the phase change in a medium loaded with capsules whose role is to enhance the transfer. A solver developed by I2M already exists to simulate the phase change without the capsules, it is therefore necessary to numerically model their presence and their interactions with the carrier PCM ; 2) to develop mathematical and algorithmic optimization tools to improve the performance and the behavior of the PCM ; 3) to build efficient and robust parametric ROMs in order to considerably reduce the computation time of the optimization method ; and finally 4) to validate the developed tools through benchmarks and comparisons with laboratory experiments.