Many researchers have investigated how to increase the overall efficiency of solar-driven thermal systems. Several key parameters, such as collector efficiency and storage tank characteristics, may impose some constraints on the annual solar fraction (ASF) of such systems. In this paper, the behaviour of integrating the phase change material (PCM) in SDHW systems is modelled and optimized n...

Colloidal suspensions aging under gravity have long been known to spontaneously separate into layers. We demonstrate through flow visualization experiments that a lateral temperature gradient as small as 10 mKycm can be responsible for such stratification and that strata correspond to a stack of convection rolls. A linear stability analysis suggests that the onset of stratification results from...