CFD Design and Validation of a Thermal Storage Tank System and Its Impact in a Design-Build Project (OR-16-C075)

This paper discusses how the use of advanced engineering tools in HVAC industry has increased as the cost of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has become more affordable for engineering firms.  We employed CFD in a design-build project in which conventional engineering tools were not sufficient to address the design challenges of developing an efficient chilled water thermal storage system. The system utilized a series of vertical tanks to store chilled water to supplement chillers in the event of a power failure. Chilled water is routed from the storage tanks to critical equipment during chiller re-start, bridging the gap in time that the chillers are unable to provide set-point chilled water due to power failure and subsequent required time to re-start.