Summarises the results of ASHRAE research project RP-707, which concerned the development of numerical models to describe the geometry and quantity of ice filling a rectangular storage tank, the ice-melting behaviour of particulate ice stored in the tank, and the experimental verification of the results as predicted by the numerical models. The development of the filling of a storage tank with particulate ice resulted in the code ICEPAC. The numerical models for establishing the ice-melting process are based on finite-difference methods of solving the Navier-Stokes equations governing the three-dimensional flow of melt water through the water in the tank. This part of the project resulted in the development of two codes, MSOLA and MELTCONTROL, which are executable on an appropriately equipped personal computer. The scale-model laboratory experiments were performed using a 1.2m-wide by 2.4m-long by 1.2m-high rectangular tank. The results of the ICEPAC software were used as input data to the ice-melting software. The results of the ice-melting numerical simulations compare well with the experimental data for water level, exit water temperature, and quantity of remaining ice mass. The models are applicable to particulate ice of a size much smaller than the dimensions of the storage tank, a bottom perimeter water outlet from the tank, rectangular storage tanks with up to four ice openings, and for either ice opening melt water flows or uniformly distributed melt water flows over the plan area of the storage tank.

KEYWORDS: year 1995, designing, energy storage, tanks, rectangular, ice storage, ice makers, geometry, ice, melting, behaviour, experiment, computer programs, comparing, calculating, sizing, location, latent heat storage, sensible heat storage, capacity