Heat accumulator
AssigneeC. Mitchell Bedford
InventorDavid W. Chase
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A heat-storage apparatus providing for especially efficient charging and discharging of a storage medium with heat and greatly facilitating simultaneous charging and discharging of different regions of the medium. The apparatus comprises a vessel having insulating walls and containing a heat transfer fluid bath and a plurality of mobile heat storage elements, each of which contains a phase change material for the storage of heat, and which are disposed within the fluid bath in a sufficiently loose configuration to allow heat-storage elements to migrate about the vessel. A charging conduit and a discharge conduit are disposed within the vessel in the fluid bath so as to induce a migratory circulation of heat-storage elements between regions where elements are being charged and regions where elements are discharged.
Claims6
A heat storage apparatus comprising:
- a vessel having insulating walls and containing a heat-transfer fluid bath;
- a plurality of mobile heat-storage elements containing a phase-change material, each said heat-storage element having substantially zero buoyancy in said fluid bath, said plurality of heat-storage elements being disposed within said fluid bath in sufficiently loose configuration to allow said heat-storage elements to migrate about said vessel;
- and
- a charging conduit and a discharge conduit for conducting fluid through said heat-transfer fluid bath, said conduits being spaced apart from one another within said fluid bath, whereby said heat-storage elements are free to migrate between hotter and cooler regions of said heat-transfer fluid bath for the transfer of heat therewith.
A heat-storage apparatus comprising:
- a vessel having insulating walls and containing a heat-transfer fluid bath;
- a plurality of heat-storage elements, each element comprising a hollow container of generally spherical shape containing a phase-change material, said heat-storage elements having substantially zero buoyancy in said fluid bath;
- a charging conduit having a first vertically extending coil portion proximate a first wall of said vessel and a second vertically extending coil portion proximate a second wall of said vessel opposite said first wall, successive turns of said coil portions being spread apart a distance greater than the diameter of said generally spherical container;
- and
- a discharge conduit having a vertically extending coil portion disposed between the first and second coil portions of said charging conduit;
- wherein said plurality of heat-storage elements are disposed within said heat-transfer fluid bath sufficiently loosely to allow said heat-storage elements to migrate about said vessel in response to thermally induced convective circulation in said heat-transfer fluid bath.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.