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.

Keywords

Main Subjects


[1]  M.A. Cuevas-Diarte, T. Calvet-Pallas, J.L. Tamarit, H.A.J. Oonk, D. Mondieig, Y. Haget, Nuevos materials termoajustables, Mundo Cientifico (2000) June.
[2]  D. Pal, Y. Joshi, Application of phase change materials for passive thermal control of plastic quad flat packages: a computational study, Numerical Heat Transfer, Part A: Applications, 30(1) (1996) 19-34.
[3]  L.F. Cabeza, J. Roca, M. Nogues, B. Zalba, J.M. Marın, Transportation and Conservation of Temperature Sensitive Materials with Phase Change Materials, State of the art. In Proceedings of the IEA ECES IA Annex 17 2nd Workshop, Ljubljana, Slovenia, (2002) 3-5 April.
[4]  M. Koschenz, B. Lehmann, Development of a thermally activated ceiling panel with PCM for application in lightweight and retrofitted buildings, Energy and Buildings, 36(6) (2004) 567-578.
[5]  L.L. Vasiliev, V.S. Burak, A.G. Kulakov, D.A. Mishkinis, P.V. Bohan, Latent heat storage modules for preheating internal combustion engines: application to a bus petrol engine, Applied Thermal Engineering, 20(10) (2000) 913-923.
[6]  M. Telkes, E. Raymond, Storing solar heat in chemicals, A Report on the Dover House. Heat Vent, 46 (1949) 79- 86.
[7]  H.G. Barkmann, F. Wessling, Use of buildings structural components for thermal storage, Proceedings of the Workshop on Solar Energy Storage  Subsystems  for  the Heating and Cooling of Buildings, Charlottesville (Virginia, USA), 1975.
 [8] M. Sokolov, Y. Keizman, Performance indicators for solar pipes with phase change storage, Solar Energy, 47(5) (1991) 339-346.
[9]  B. Zalba, J.M. Marı́n, L.F. Cabeza, H. Mehling, Review on thermal energy storage with phase change: materials, heat transfer analysis and applications, Applied Thermal Engineering, 23(3) (2003) 251-283.
[10]  J.M. Khodadadi, Y. Zhang, Effects of buoyancy-driven convection on melting within spherical containers, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 44(8) (2001) 1605-1618.
[11]  J.M. Khodadadi, S.F. Hosseinizadeh, Nanoparticle- enhanced phase change  materials  (NEPCM)  with  great potential for improved thermal energy storage, International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer, 34(5) (2007) 534-543.
[12]  M. Abolghasemi, A. Keshavarz, M.A. Mehrabian, Thermodynamic analysis of a thermal storage unit  under the influence of nano-particles added to the phase change material and/or the working fluid, Heat and Mass Transfer, 48(11) (2012) 1961-1970.
[13]  A. Pasupathy, L. Athanasius, R. Velraj, R.V. Seeniraj, Experimental investigation and numerical simulation analysis on the thermal performance of a building roof incorporating phase change material (PCM) for thermal management, Applied Thermal Engineering, 28(5) (2008) 556-565.
[14]  S. Wu, D. Zhu, X. Li, H. Li, J. Lei, Thermal energy storage behavior of Al2O3–H2O nanofluids, Thermochimica Acta, 483(1) (2009) 73-77.
[15]   E. Ebrahimi, Experimental investigation of cooling performance enhancement of a photovoltaic module using a phase change material (PCM)-CuO nanoparticles, Amirkabir Journal of Mechanical Engineering, 52 (2) (2018) 1-10 (In Persian).
[16]  Y.B. Tao, Y.L. He, Numerical study on thermal energy storage performance of phase change material under non-steady-state inlet boundary, Applied Energy, 88(11) (2011) 4172-4179.
[17] M.Y. Yazici, M. Avci, O. Aydin, M. Akgun, On the effect of eccentricity of a horizontal tube-in-shell storage unit on solidification of a PCM, Applied Thermal Engineering, 64(1) (2014) 1-9.
[18] M.R Assari, Reza Nasiri, A. Alipoor, Experimental study of charge of paraffin wax along with nanoparticles in an eccentric double tube heat exchanger for storage energy in a solar water heater. Amirkabir Journal of Mechanical Engineering, 50(6) (2019) 1403-1410 (In Persian).
[19] M. Irani, F. Sarhaddi, A. Behzadmehr, Thermal Analysis of a Solar Wall Equipped to Nano Phase Change Material. Amirkabir Journal of Mechanical Engineering 51(4), (2019)131-140 (In Persian).
 [20]  A.D. Brent, V.R. Voller, K.J. Reid, Enthalpy-porosity technique for modeling convection-diffusion phase change: application to the melting of a pure metal, Numerical Heat Transfer, 13(3) (1988) 297-318.
[21] V.R. Voller, C. Prakash, A fixed grid numerical modelling methodology for convection-diffusion mushy region phase-change problems, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 30(8) (1987) 1709-1719.
[22]  F.L. Tan, S.F. Hosseinizadeh, J.M. Khodadadi, L. Fan, Experimental and computational study of constrained melting of phase change materials (PCM) inside a spherical capsule, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 52(15) (2009) 3464-3472.