Response of thermal storage units to periodic operating conditions

Abstract This paper aims to provide an exact solution to the problem of sensible heat transfer and storage in fluid-solid systems. Periodically fluctuating operating conditions are considered in detail, and a simple solution procedure is proposed in order to obtain the fluid and solid temperature distributions for any periodic thermal energy supply. Some significant examples are solved explicitly, and the relevant results are reported and briefly discussed in order to examine directly the storage unit's capability of smoothing out time fluctuations of the power source.