scholarly journals Impact of Surface Undulation on Flow and Heat Transfer Characteristics in an Enclosure Filled with Nanoencapsulated Phase Change Materials (NEPCMs)

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
A. Alhashash ◽  
H. Saleh

The present study investigates the natural convection in a wavy enclosure caused by a thermal difference between a cold wall and a hot undulated wall. The enclosure is filled with hybrid nanofluids. The hybrid nanofluids are formed of a phase change material (PCM) suspended in the water. The PCM utilizes polyurethane as the shell and nonadecane as the core. The core absorbs or releases its energy in the shape of latent heat inside the water and contributes to thermal energy storage and heat transfer. The governing equations are expressed in PDEs and solved by the finite element method (FEM). Parametric studies were used to analyze the solid concentration, fusion temperature, amplitude of corrugation, number of corrugations, and Rayleigh number. It is found that the heat transfer rate enhances by the rise of the latent heat of the NEPCM cores. The global heat transfer can be improved by more than 12 % by adding 1 % of NEPCM particles volume fraction. However, the heat transfer tends to decrease by applying the wavy surface.

2016 ◽  
Vol 138 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bahram Rajabifar ◽  
Hamid Reza Seyf ◽  
Yuwen Zhang ◽  
Sanjeev K. Khanna

In this paper, a 3D-conjugated heat transfer model for nano-encapsulated phase change materials (NEPCMs) cooled micro pin fin heat sink (MPFHS) is presented. The governing equations of flow and heat transfer are solved using a finite volume method based on collocated grid and the results are validated with the available data reported in the literature. The effect of nanoparticles volume fraction (C = 0.1, 0.2, and 0.3), inlet velocity (Vin = 0.015, 0.030, and 0.045 m/s), and bottom wall temperature (Twall = 299.15, 303.15, 315.15, and 350.15 K) is studied on Nusselt and Euler numbers as well as temperature contours in the system. The results indicate that significant heat transfer enhancement is achieved when using the NEPCM slurry as an advanced coolant. The maximum Nusselt number when NEPCM slurry (C = 0.3) with Vin = 0.015, 0.030, and 0.045 (m/s) is employed is 2.27, 1.81, and 1.56 times higher than the ones with base fluid, respectively. However, with increasing bottom wall temperature, the Nusselt number first increases then decreases. The former is due to higher heat transfer capability of coolant at temperatures over the melting range of phase change material (PCM) particles due to partial melting of nanoparticles in this range. However, the latter phenomenon is due to the lower capability of the NEPCM particles and consequently coolant in absorbing heat at coolant temperatures is higher than the temperature correspond to fully melted NEPCM. It was observed that the NEPCM slurry has a drastic effect on the Euler number, and with increasing volume fraction and decreasing inlet velocity, the Euler number increases accordingly.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 2590
Author(s):  
S. A. M. Mehryan ◽  
Kaamran Raahemifar ◽  
Leila Sasani Gargari ◽  
Ahmad Hajjar ◽  
Mohamad El Kadri ◽  
...  

A Nano-Encapsulated Phase-Change Material (NEPCM) suspension is made of nanoparticles containing a Phase Change Material in their core and dispersed in a fluid. These particles can contribute to thermal energy storage and heat transfer by their latent heat of phase change as moving with the host fluid. Thus, such novel nanoliquids are promising for applications in waste heat recovery and thermal energy storage systems. In the present research, the mixed convection of NEPCM suspensions was addressed in a wavy wall cavity containing a rotating solid cylinder. As the nanoparticles move with the liquid, they undergo a phase change and transfer the latent heat. The phase change of nanoparticles was considered as temperature-dependent heat capacity. The governing equations of mass, momentum, and energy conservation were presented as partial differential equations. Then, the governing equations were converted to a non-dimensional form to generalize the solution, and solved by the finite element method. The influence of control parameters such as volume concentration of nanoparticles, fusion temperature of nanoparticles, Stefan number, wall undulations number, and as well as the cylinder size, angular rotation, and thermal conductivities was addressed on the heat transfer in the enclosure. The wall undulation number induces a remarkable change in the Nusselt number. There are optimum fusion temperatures for nanoparticles, which could maximize the heat transfer rate. The increase of the latent heat of nanoparticles (a decline of Stefan number) boosts the heat transfer advantage of employing the phase change particles.


Author(s):  
Ayushman Singh ◽  
Srikanth Rangarajan ◽  
Leila Choobineh ◽  
Bahgat Sammakia

Abstract This work presents an approach to optimally designing a composite with thermal conductivity enhancers (TCEs) infiltrated with phase change material (PCM) based on figure of merit (FOM) for thermal management of portable electronic devices. The FOM defines the balance between effective thermal conductivity and energy storage capacity. In present study, TCEs are in the form of a honeycomb structure. TCEs are often used in conjunction with PCM to enhance the conductivity of the composite medium. Under constrained composite volume, the higher volume fraction of TCEs improves the effective thermal conductivity of the composite, while it reduces the amount of latent heat storage simultaneously. The present work arrives at the optimal design of composite for electronic cooling by maximizing the FOM to resolve the stated trade-off. In this study, the total volume of the composite and the interfacial heat transfer area between the PCM and TCE are constrained for all design points. A benchmarked two-dimensional direct CFD model was employed to investigate the thermal performance of the PCM and TCE composite. Furthermore, assuming conduction-dominated heat transfer in the composite, a simplified effective numerical model that solves the single energy equation with the effective properties of the PCM and TCE has been developed. The effective thermal conductivity of the composite is obtained by minimizing the error between the transient temperature gradient of direct and simplified model by iteratively varying the effective thermal conductivity. The FOM is maximized to find the optimal volume fraction for the present design.


Author(s):  
Yasmin Khakpour ◽  
Jamal Seyed-Yagoobi

This numerical study investigates the effect of using a blend of micro-encapsulated phase change materials (MEPCMs) on the heat transfer characteristics of a liquid in a rectangular enclosure driven by natural convection. A comparison has been made between the cases of using single component MEPCM slurry and a blend of two-component MEPCM slurry. The natural convection is generated by the temperature difference between two vertical walls of the enclosure maintained at constant temperatures. Each of the two phase change materials store latent heat at a specific range of temperatures. During phase change of the PCM, the effective density of the slurry varies. This results in thermal expansion and hence a buoyancy driven flow. The effects of MEPCM concentration in the slurry and changes in the operating conditions such as the wall temperatures compared to that of pure water have been studied. The MEPCM latent heat and the increased volumetric thermal expansion coefficient during phase change of the MEPCM play a major role in this heat transfer augmentation.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (19) ◽  
pp. 6176 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hamidreza Behi ◽  
Mohammadreza Behi ◽  
Ali Ghanbarpour ◽  
Danial Karimi ◽  
Aryan Azad ◽  
...  

Usage of phase change materials’ (PCMs) latent heat has been investigated as a promising method for thermal energy storage applications. However, one of the most common disadvantages of using latent heat thermal energy storage (LHTES) is the low thermal conductivity of PCMs. This issue affects the rate of energy storage (charging/discharging) in PCMs. Many researchers have proposed different methods to cope with this problem in thermal energy storage. In this paper, a tubular heat pipe as a super heat conductor to increase the charging/discharging rate was investigated. The temperature of PCM, liquid fraction observations, and charging and discharging rates are reported. Heat pipe effectiveness was defined and used to quantify the relative performance of heat pipe-assisted PCM storage systems. Both experimental and numerical investigations were performed to determine the efficiency of the system in thermal storage enhancement. The proposed system in the charging/discharging process significantly improved the energy transfer between a water bath and the PCM in the working temperature range of 50 °C to 70 °C.


Author(s):  
Tingting Wu ◽  
Yanxin Hu ◽  
Xianqing Liu ◽  
Changhong Wang ◽  
Zijin Zeng ◽  
...  

Background: The employment of Phase Change Materials (PCMs) provides a potential selection for heat dissipation and energy storage. The main reason that hinders the wide application is the low thermal conductivity of PCMs. Combining the proper metal fin and copper foam, the fin/composite phase change material (Fin-CPCM) structure with good performance could be obtained. However, the flow resistance of liquid paraffin among the porous structure has seldom been reported, which will significantly affect the thermal performance inside the metal foam. Furthermore, the presence of porous metal foam is primarily helpful for enhancing the heat transfer process from the bottom heat source. The heat transfer rate is slow due to the one-dimensional heat transfer from the bottom. It should be beneficial for improving the heat transfer performance by adding external fins. Therefore, in the present study, a modified structure by combining the metal fin and copper foam is proposed to further accelerate the melting process and improve the temperature uniformity of the composite. Objective: The purpose of this study is to research the differences in the heat transfer performance among pure paraffin, Composite Phase Change Materials (CPCM) and fin/Composite Phase Change Material (Fin-CPCM) under different heating conditions, and the flow resistance of melting paraffin in copper foam. Methods: To experimentally research the differences in the heat transfer performance among pure paraffin, CPCM and Fin-CPCM under different heating conditions, a visual experimental platform was set up, and the flow resistance of melting paraffin in copper foam was also analyzed. In order to probe into the limits of the heat transfer capability of composite phase change materials, the temperature distribution of PCMs under constant heat fluxes and constant temperature conditions was studied. In addition, the evolution of the temperature distributions was visualized by using the infrared thermal imager at specific points during the melting process. Results: The experimental results showed that the maximum temperature of Fin-CPCM decreased by 21°C under the heat flux of 1500W/m2 compared with pure paraffin. At constant temperature heating conditions, the melting time of Fin-CPCM at a temperature of 75°C is about 2600s, which is 65% less than that of pure paraffin. Due to the presence of the external fins, which brings the advantage of improving the heat transfer rate, the experimental result exhibited the most uniform temperature distribution. Conclusion: The addition of copper foam can accelerate the melting process. The addition of external fins brings the advantage of improving the heat transfer rate, and can make the temperature distribution more uniform.


2019 ◽  
Vol 141 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Arunachalam

Energy storage helps in waste management, environmental protection, saving of fossil fuels, cost effectiveness, and sustainable growth. Phase change material (PCM) is a substance which undergoes simultaneous melting and solidification at certain temperature and pressure and can thereby absorb and release thermal energy. Phase change materials are also called thermal batteries which have the ability to store large amount of heat at fixed temperature. Effective integration of the latent heat thermal energy storage system with solar thermal collectors depends on heat storage materials and heat exchangers. The practical limitation of the latent heat thermal energy system for successful implementation in various applications is mainly from its low thermal conductivity. Low thermal conductivity leads to low heat transfer coefficient, and thereby, the phase change process is prolonged which signifies the requirement of heat transfer enhancement techniques. Typically, for salt hydrates and organic PCMs, the thermal conductivity range varies between 0.4–0.7 W/m K and 0.15–0.3 W/m K which increases the thermal resistance within phase change materials during operation, seriously affecting efficiency and thermal response. This paper reviews the different geometry of commercial heat exchangers that can be used to address the problem of low thermal conductivity, like use of fins, additives with high thermal conductivity materials like metal strips, microencapsulated PCM, composite PCM, porous metals, porous metal foam matrix, carbon nanofibers and nanotubes, etc. Finally, different solar thermal applications and potential PCMs for low-temperature thermal energy storage were also discussed.


Proceedings ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 16
Author(s):  
Jiang ◽  
Liu ◽  
Yuan

In order to effectively improve the thermal performance of the thermal insulation masonry wall, the thermal bridge effect of the grey joint on the heat transfer of the wall structure was studied. A brand-new form of phase change material walls, which used phase change materials in the wall parts to build ash joints, was carried out. The application of phase change material mortar, which was different from conventional "Hamburger" phase change material walls, was demonstrated to be a useful tool to reduce the thermal coefficient of the masonry wall. Furthermore, the scale-down test and numerical simulation of the heat transfer coefficient of the phase change material wall with different distribution of ash joints were experimented and discussed, and the feasibility of the new-form phase change material wall within the error range was verified.


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