Abstract

The present study describes a CFD based methodology for the analysis of temperature stratification in an air thermocline tank using a three-dimensional model developed in ANSYS CFX. This particular case considers copper slags as filler material, allowing to simulate its behavior as a coupled solid-fluid interface system. The charging and standby phases are simulated using a coupled CFD model to capture the heat transfer mechanisms between the solid-fluid region to assess the effect of including a copper slag rock bed inside the tank. The transient temperature profile along the tank height is obtained for charging and standby process in order to analyze the thermal behavior of the rock bed during different stages in every process.