Experimental study on heat discharging characteristic of single tank with different annular baffle conditions

Molten salts as thermal energy storage (TES) material have been numerously studied. The annular baffle immersed in single tank can improve the heat discharging performance (HDP) of the TES system. The different annular baffle conditions are experimentally studied in single tank TES system, the working conditions are set as atmospheric pressure, vacuum and filled with solar salt in the annular baffle. The results present that the effective heat discharging time (HDT) of working condition C (filling the solar salt in the annular baffle) and working condition B (the vacuum treatment of the annular baffle) is increased by 21.1% and 6.1%, respectively compared with the working condition A (the atmospheric pressure in the annular baffle). The highest heat discharging efficiency (HDE) is 93.93% obtained by working condition C, while the HDE of working condition B and A is 91.16% and 83.2%, respectively. This research provides a significance guide for the design and application of single tank TES system.