- Title
- Further developments of the miscibility gap alloy: applications and manufacture
- Creator
- Fraser, Benjamin Brice
- Relation
- University of Newcastle Research Higher Degree Thesis
- Resource Type
- thesis
- Date
- 2022
- Description
- Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
- Description
- The world is rapidly approaching, if not already experiencing, dire times fuelled by human caused climate change. Despite the predictable outcome of our activities the movement to counteract the catastrophe bearing down on us has been slow. But surely it is better late than never, and we may yet be able to halt, or even reverse the oncoming calamity. We know that one way to achieve this is to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide, and other ‘green house gases’, released into the atmosphere. And the best way to reduce this release is to eliminate the burning of fossil fuels, which are burnt ubiquitously across the globe for electricity generation, industrial and residential heat uses, and for locomotion. Renewable generating techniques, such as wind turbines and photovoltaic cells, are ready to replace fossil fuel use as they are mature and proven technologies. These technologies are supplemented by a range of other renewable generating methods suitable for specific situations. However, renewable methods are almost always intermittent in nature. So, to suit our 24/7 lifestyles and energy demands, a way to store the energy generated by these technologies is mandatory for a sustainable future. In this thesis, thermal energy storage is introduced as a necessary component of an energy storage trifecta. This trifecta comprises of three key technologies which provide dispatchable power from renewable energy sources on the short, mid, and long term time scales. Thermal energy stored in the form of latent heat, the heat absorbed and released during a phase change, is identified as being particularly appropriate for integration with many existing energy users due to a high energy storage density and a narrow delivery temperature of the stored energy. The practicality of implementing latent heat thermal storage has been problematic, mainly due to lower heat transfer rates due to low thermal conductivity, and also due to difficulty in containing the liquid phase of the storage material. A range of novel latent heat thermal energy storage systems, known collectively as miscibility gap alloys (MGA) are introduced and shown to eliminate these typical implementation barriers due to high theoretical thermal conductivity and macroscopic solidity and stability in both the solid and liquid phases. A range of analytical and numerical models have been investigated and modified for use with MGA systems, the models were validated against literature and experimental data and shown to be useful. The enthalpy method was used to model the phase change process, and both an explicit and an implicit formulation was derived and detailed.
- Subject
- MGA; PCM; TES; LHTES; renewable energy; thermal storage
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1513718
- Identifier
- uon:56763
- Rights
- Copyright 2022 Benjamin Brice Fraser
- Language
- eng
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