Efficient modeling of latent thermal energy storage systems for optimal design and operational research

As a booming economy drives the need for more electricity, demands on freshwater for thermoelectric power generation also grow. Facing the limited freshwater resources, alternative dry cooling technologies such as air cooled condensers (ACCs) that reduce water consumption are becoming more prevalent. However, the performance of air ACCs is seriously deteriorated at ambient temperature. To address this challenge, a novel application of a Phase Change Material (PCM) based cooling system for supplementary cooling of ACCs is proposed. One of the engineering challenges that prevent the commercial application of latent thermal energy storage (LTES) systems is the lack of computationally efficient methods to model the transient and nonlinear behavior of the system for design and operational research. In this dissertation, efficient modeling approaches of an LTES system are proposed for optimal design of the PCM based cooling system. Also large scale modeling of such a LTES system is proposed for operational research.