The heat storage efficiency of single tank molten salt heat storage device will decrease when increasing the thickness of the inclined layer. To solve this problem

Fluent software was used to simulate the thickness of thermocline layer under conditions with different inlet velocities

inlet temperatures

specific heats and thermal conductivities of porous media. The simulation results show that

the thickness of the thermocline layer increases with the inlet velocity

and decreases slightly with the increase of the inlet temperature. Adding porous media can reduce the thickness of the thermocline layer

and the greater the specific heat and the smaller the thermal conductivity of the porous media

the more obvious the effect of reducing the heat storage efficiency. For example

when the inlet temperature is 700 K and the inlet velocity is 0.01 m/s

the thickness of the thermocline layer can be reduced from 32.5 cm to 22.5 cm by adding porous materials with specific heat of 2 000 J/(kg·K) and thermal conductivity of 1 W/(m·K)

while that of the porous materials with specific heat of 1 600 J/(kg·K) and thermal conductivity of 10 W/(m·K) can only be reduced to 29.5 cm. Therefore

choosing a heat storage fluid with a lower inlet velocity and a larger inlet temperature is more conducive to reducing the thickness of the thermocline layer and improving the heat storage efficiency

and choosing a porous material with a larger specific heat and smaller thermal conductivity is more conducive to reducing the oblique temperature layer thickness.