Abstract The demand for renewable energy sources is limited by their inherent intermittent nature. The thermal energy storage technique overcomes this shortcoming by allowing storage of naturally occurring energy (e.g. solar) during “non-peak hours”. The article presents an experimental investigation of the sparsely studied ‘single medium thermocline’ (SMT) based single tank sensible thermal energy storage (TES). The work aims to reconsider its potential by minimizing the fluid dynamic perturbations during the charging cycle which disrupt the stability of the thermocline leading to undesirable energy losses. The article discusses the effect of Atwood number (density stratification) and mean temperature on TES effectiveness as well as providing the appropriate thermodynamic insights. Implementation of the experimental procedures and strategies discussed in this article demonstrates a stable thermocline which persists for more than 6 h (hours) with minimal energy degradation.

中文翻译：

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单介质分层蓄热系统实验研究

摘要 对可再生能源的需求受到其固有的间歇性的限制。热能储存技术通过允许在“非高峰时段”储存自然产生的能量（例如太阳能）来克服这一缺点。本文介绍了对基于“单介质温跃层”(SMT) 的稀疏研究的单罐显热储能 (TES) 的实验研究。这项工作旨在通过最大限度地减少充电循环期间的流体动力扰动来重新考虑其潜力，这些扰动会破坏温跃层的稳定性，从而导致不良的能量损失。本文讨论了阿特伍德数（密度分层）和平均温度对 TES 有效性的影响，并提供了适当的热力学见解。