Energy Storage Optimization for Solar Applications: CFD Approach

To make sure the future generations do not face an energy crisis, we must take steps to shift towards more sustainable energy practices which imply shifting to renewable energy resources. Solar energy, being present all over the world abundantly is a very attractive choice. This project aims to model a geometry suitable for storing solar energy in the form of heat in various heat storage materials such as phase change materials and sensible heat storage materials. The modeling was done using the Geometry module on ANSYS, after which the meshing was done on the Mesh module. After modeling and meshing, the Fluid Flow (Fluent) module was used to assign the materials and boundary conditions to the model and simulate the flow of water through it in different scenarios.