A numerical study on the cylindrical packed bed sensible heat storage unit was accomplished by finite difference method. Relation between the heat storage rate and the mechanical pumping energy and the characteristics of the heat storage were investigated for various in let velocities and porosities. In this study, the numerical results are as follows: 1) The temperature distributions of solid and fluid rapidly reached the steady state as the heat capacity ratio was increased. 2) The efficiency of the heat storage was increased as the heat capacity ratio was decreased. For constant heat capacity ratio, however, the efficiency of the heat storage was increased at lower porosity. 3) It is very profitable to design the heat storage system such that the porosity is larger for the large flow rate and samller for small flow rate.