DiffStrat – Stratification of Thermal Storage Tanks by Diffusor Design

Thermal storage systems are increasingly being used to balance the production and demand for heat or cold. In combination with renewable energy systems such as heat pumps or solar heat, the temperature stratification of the thermal storage is a decisive factor for the efficiency of the systems. But also in combination with biomass heating plants, the advantages of good thermal stratification are great, since stratification achieves more constant supply temperatures to the network and more storage capacity can be used with the same storage volume, thus reducing the cycling of the heat generators. Inflow geometries play a special role here, both for the loading and unloading of water reservoirs. In the projects DiffStrat and DiffStrat 2, different inflow geometries were investigated for their stratifying effect, both by measurements in the test bench and, building upon these results, also by CFD simulations.