A fully solid-state cold thermal energy storage device for car seats using shape-memory alloys

doi:10.1007/s11708-022-0855-3

Front. Energy

2023, Vol. 17

Issue (4) : 504-515 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11708-022-0855-3

RESEARCH ARTICLE

A fully solid-state cold thermal energy storage device for car seats using shape-memory alloys

Yian LU¹, Suxin QIAN²(

), Jun SHEN³

¹. Department of Refrigeration and Cryogenic Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China; Key Laboratory of Cryogenics, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
². Department of Refrigeration and Cryogenic Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China
³. Key Laboratory of Cryogenics, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China; Department of Energy and Power Engineering, School of Mechanical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China

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Abstract

Thermal energy storage has been a pivotal technology to fill the gap between energy demands and energy supplies. As a solid-solid phase change material, shape-memory alloys (SMAs) have the inherent advantages of leakage free, no encapsulation, negligible volume variation, as well as superior energy storage properties such as high thermal conductivity (compared with ice and paraffin) and volumetric energy density, making them excellent thermal energy storage materials. Considering these characteristics, the design of the shape-memory alloy based the cold thermal energy storage system for precooling car seat application is introduced in this paper based on the proposed shape-memory alloy-based cold thermal energy storage cycle. The simulation results show that the minimum temperature of the metal boss under the seat reaches 26.2 °C at 9.85 s, which is reduced by 9.8 °C, and the energy storage efficiency of the device is 66%. The influence of initial temperature, elastocaloric materials, and the shape-memory alloy geometry scheme on the performance of car seat cold thermal energy storage devices is also discussed. Since SMAs are both solid-state refrigerants and thermal energy storage materials, hopefully the proposed concept can promote the development of more promising shape-memory alloy-based cold and hot thermal energy storage devices.

Keywords shape-memory alloy (SMA) elastocaloric effect (eCE) cooled seat cold thermal energy storage

Corresponding Author(s): Suxin QIAN

About author:

^* These authors contributed equally to this work.

Online First Date: 25 December 2022 Issue Date: 29 August 2023

Cite this article:

Yian LU,Suxin QIAN,Jun SHEN. A fully solid-state cold thermal energy storage device for car seats using shape-memory alloys[J]. Front. Energy, 2023, 17(4): 504-515.

URL:

https://academic.hep.com.cn/fie/EN/10.1007/s11708-022-0855-3
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fie/EN/Y2023/V17/I4/504

Fig.1 Theoretical cycle of SMA-based cold thermal energy storage.

Fig.2 SMA cold thermal energy storage cycle.

Fig.3 Illustration of the car seat cold thermal energy storage device ((1) slide track, (2) clamp, (3) pulley, (4) pressure sensor, and (5) steel cable).

Fig.4 Block diagrams of simulation model.

Meshing details	Boundary conditions
	$k m ∂ T m ∂ x \| x = 0; x = x m a x = k m ∂ T m ∂ y \| y = 0; y = y m a x = h (T f − T m)$
	$k κ ∂ T κ ∂ x \| x = 0; x = x m a x = k κ ∂ T κ ∂ y \| y = 0; y = y m a x = h (T f − T κ)$ $k m ∂ T m ∂ x \| x = 0; x = x m a x = k m ∂ T m ∂ y \| y = 0; y = y m a x = h (T f − T m)$ $− k m ∂ T m ∂ x \| x = x m a x = k κ ∂ T κ ∂ y \| x = 0 = q'' = U (T m − T κ)$

Tab.1 Introduction of meshing details and the boundary conditions

Symbol	Value	Symbol	Value
C_AM/(MPa·K⁻¹)	10.4	k_M/(W·(m·K)⁻¹)	8.6
C_MA/(MPa·K⁻¹)	14.0	k_Cu/(W·(m·K)⁻¹)	400
T_As/K	283.15	τ/s	1.0×10⁻³
T_Ms/K	273.15	V_L/m³	5×10⁻²³
ε_T	0.025	h_f/(W·(m²·K)⁻¹)	10
E_A/GPa	35.9	U/(W·(m²·K)⁻¹)	10000
E_M/GPa	32	l₁×l₂×l₃/mm³	350 × 150 × 3
ρ_m/(kg·m⁻³)	6500	$ε ˙$ / $s − 1$	0.01
c_p,m/(J·(kg·K)⁻¹)	450	T_f/K	313.15
ρ_Cu/(kg·m⁻³)	8900	T_m,0/K	308.15
c_p,Cu/(J·(kg·K)⁻¹)	390	T_Cu,0/K	308.15
?s/(J·(kg·K)⁻¹)	40	ε_max	0.05
k_A/(W·(m·K)⁻¹)	18

Tab.2 Thermomechanical, model-specific, process-related parameters, and initial conditions used the simulations [22, 24–26]

Fig.5 Transient characteristics of discharging process.

Fig.6 Impact of initial temperature of discharging characteristic.

Fig.7 Impact of different geometric schemes of SMA.

Tab.3 Results for the case of fixed SMA geometry

Tab.4 Results for the case of fixed motor power

Fig.8 Impact of elastocaloric materials.

a	Thermal diffusivity/(m²?s^–1)
COP	Coefficient of performance
C	Clausius-Clapeyron coefficient/(MPa?K)
c_p	Specific heat/(J?(kg?K)^–1)
eCE	Elastocaloric effect
E	Young’s modulus/MPa
g'''	Generation term in energy equation/(W?m^–3)
h	Heat transfer coefficient/(W?(m²?K)^–1)
k	Thermal conductivity/(W?(m?K)^–1)
l	Length/m
Q	Heat transfer/J
S	Surface area/m²
$Δ s$	Entropy change/(J?( kg?K)^–1)
SMA	Shape-memory alloy
s	Specific entropy/(J?( kg?K)^–1)
T	Temperature/K
U	Solid-solid heat transfer coefficient/(W?(m²?K)^–1)
V	Volume/m³
V_L	Transforming layer volume/m³
Greek symbols
$ε$	Strain
$ε ˙$	Strain rate/s^–1
$η$	Energy storage efficiency
$ξ$	Phase fraction
$ρ$	Density/(kg?m^–3)
$τ$	Relaxation time constant/s
$σ$	Stress/MPa
Subscripts
A	Austenite
As	Austenite start
Af	Austenite finish
Cu	Copper
c	Cooling capacity in one cycle
f	Air
M	Martensite
Ms	Martensite start
Mf	Martensite finish
max	Maximum
m	SMA
Superscripts
AM	Austenite to martensite transformation
MA	Martensite to austenite transformation

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