Air-conditioning system with ice thermal storage

Performance characteristics of an-air conditioning system based on ice storage to cool a room located in the laboratories of Mechanical Engineering Department of Çukurova University were investigated. First, the behaviour of water during liquid-to-solid phase change process and effect of brine inlet temperature on ice formation inside the ice storage tank were investigated. In the second stage, effects of brine inlet temperature, air temperature at the inlet of the condenser and charging period on performance of the system were analyzed. Discharge experiments were also performed with two automatic control operating strategies.The results of charging experiments showed that some mechanisms observed during the ice formation are important parameters for the system performance. Therefore, a parallel experimental system was constructed to investigate phase change phenomena around a horizontal tube and experiments were performed at three different brine inlet temperatures. A mathematical model was also developed to calculate the heat transfer process for phase change phenomenon around a horizontal tube.Keywords: Ice thermal energy storage, phase change, nucleation, ice formation.