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Heat storage efficiency is required to maximize the potential of combined heat and power generation or renewable energy sources for heating. Using a phase change material (PCM) could be an attractive choice in several instances. Commercially available paraffin-based PCM was investigated using T-history method with sufficient agreement with the data from the manufacturer. The introduced LHTES with cylindrical capsules is simple and scalable in capacity, charging/discharging time, and temperature level. The overall stored energy density is 9% higher than the previously proposed design of similar design complexity. The discharging process of the designed latent heat thermal energy storage (LHTES) was evaluated for two different flow rates. The PCM inside the capsules and heat transfer fluid (HTF) temperature, as well as the HTF flow rate, were measured. The lumped parameter numerical model was developed and validated successfully. The advantage of the proposed model is its computational simplicity, and thus the possibility to use it in simulations of a whole heat distribution network. The so-called state of charge (SoC), which plays a crucial role in successful heat storage management, is a part of the evaluation of both experimental and computational data.

Natural convective mass transfer was studied experimentally and numerically. Experimentally it was studied evaporation from cone cavity that remained at steady temperature, ranging from 35°C to 75°C. Water was evaporating to moist air. Analytical equation describing the depletion of mass in cone cavity was derived and used for evaluation of mass flux and averaged mass transfer coefficients from experimental data. Same equation is used also for handling the change of diameter in CFD transient simulation. Moist air was modelled as two component gas, buoyancy forced are modelled by generalized Boussinesq approximation for density variation. Commercial code Star-CCM+ was used for the calculation. From the measured mass transfer coefficients, Sherwood numbers were determined and correlated as a function of Rayleigh number. Obtained correlation was compared with existing correlation with satisfactory discrepancy and extended the previous range of validity to Grm = (0.1 ÷ 104). Several measured cases were also tested numerically with satisfactory difference from experimental data.

An experimental study was conducted to investigate the thermal field of low-speed flow of moistair in a horizontal rectangular duct, uniformly heated from below (Poiseuille–Benard flow). Averaged temperature fields were measured in vertical mid-plane using thermocouples. The buoyancy-induced secondary flow is interacting with forced Poiseuille flow which leads to complex flow behaviour with flow reversal along the top surface. Two types of bottom boundary conditions were examined: aluminium plate (only heat transfer) and water film (simultaneous heat and mass transfer) heated to the same temperature. Presence of mass transfer causes stronger transient behaviour above the bottom surface and enhancing of heat transfer, but the overall character of the thermal field remains the same as in case of heat transfer only.

A flow over hot water film in horizontal channel (Poiseuille–Benard flow) is studied experimentally and by means of CFD. Averaged temperature and concentration fields were measured in central transverse plane using RTD and capacitive humidity probe for different Ri = Gr/Re2. A similarity of thermal and concentration field is discussed and the influence of thermal and humidity field by radiative heat transfer is investigated since it has a considerable effect. Same cases are modeled by CFD in commercial code Star-CCM+. Simulated thermal and concentration fields shows similar character as those from measurements when radiative heat transfer mode is considered.

The article deals with the analysis of CFD results of the turbulent synthetic jet. The numerical simulation of Large Eddy Simulation (LES) using commercial solver ANSYS CFX has been performed. The unsteady flow field is studied from the point of view of identification of the moving vortex ring, which has been identified both on the snapshots of flow field using swirling-strength criterion and using the Dynamic Mode Decomposition (DMD) of five periods. It is shown that travelling vortex ring vanishes due to interaction with vortex structures in the synthesised turbulent jet. DMD modes with multiple of the basic frequency of synthetic jet, which are connected with travelling vortex structure, have largest DMD amplitudes.