NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION OF VENTILATION METHODS IN AIR CONDITIONED BATTERY STORAGE ROOM

Abstract

Ventilation performance inside vented batteries storage rooms was investigated numerically using Ansys Fluent 16. The Model was built and meshed by Ansys design modeler part of Ansys software yielding around 2.6 million elements after making good use of symmetry boundary condition, and around 5.1 million in elements for the cases that have no geometrical symmetry. Validation was done at first against experimental published data and comparison between different turbulence models was performed. Standard k-ε turbulence model offered the nearest results to the experimental data. Parametric Study is done to investigate the effect of three different factors on the efficiency of the ventilation system. First, the relation between the ACH employed and the average volumetric hydrogen. Second, the effect of changing inlets and outlets grilles location under fixed 8 ACH on hydrogen concentration inside the room. Third the effect of splitting the long single row into two halves vertical rows (double rack single step and double rack double step) on ventilation performance is investigated. Storage of the batteries in double vertical racks with double steps offered the best ventilation performance, using wall type inlet grille at the lower wall section and outlet grilles at the roof while the batteries rack are surrounded by curtains to act as local exhaust ventilation technique.