Numerical Investigation of Melting Nano-Enhanced Phase Change Materials in Triangular Enclosure

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

1 Masters student, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Noshirvani Babol, Babol, Iran

2 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Babol Noshirvani University of Technology, Babol, Islamic Republic of Iran

Abstract

This paper presents a numerical study of the melting of nano-enhanced phase change materials inside a triangular container using N-eicosane and copper particles as base material and nanoparticle, respectively. Nanoparticles are used in the process of heat transfer and improve lubrication performance. To investigate the effect of nanoparticles on the heat transfer rate, various particles of copper nanoparticles have been added to the base phase change materials. The increase in the performance of the heat transfer of nanoparticles in the solid state was more than the liquid state in the laminar flow and the natural convection heat transfer. Also, the effect of entropy has been investigated. The simulation results show that the nanoparticles cause an increase in the thermal conductivity of nano-enhanced phase change materials compared to conventional phase change material. Increasing thermal conductivity by reducing the latent heat, increases the rate of melting of nanoparticles. The time of the melting of the phase change material has significantly decreased with increasing nanoparticles. Increasing the thermal conductivity effective in reducing the entropy production of the system is much more than the reduction of the specific heat and the heat of fusion of nano-enhanced phase change materials.

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References

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Amirkabir Journal of Mechanical Engineering
Volume 52, Issue 9
December 2020
Pages 2507-2520

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