Computer simulation of a solar energy system with a viscous-entrainment liquid storage tank model. [TRNSYS Code]

Existing models for the liquid solar energy storage system do not properly consider viscous entrainment effects of jet streams which cause turbulent mixing inside liquid storage tanks. Turbulent mixing reduces thermal stratification adjacent to jet streams and prevents jet streams from going further down to the bottom of the storage tank. To account for viscous entrainment effects, a set of partial differential equations is derived and an implicit finite difference method is employed for its solution. TRNSYS solar energy simulation with this viscous-entrainment liquid storage model is carried out for a hot water application. Simulation results show that the viscous entrainment model represents more realistic storage tank performance compared with other existing models.