Rheological Characteristics of Nanoparticle Compound Microencapsulated Phase Change Material Suspension

Author(s):  
Liang Wang ◽  
Guiping Lin ◽  
Yulong Ding

Microencapsulated phase change material (MPCM) suspensions have large specific heat due to the latent heat of the phase change material and enhance the convective heat transfer consequently. However low thermal conductivity of the phase change material diminishes the heat transfer performance of the MPCM suspensions. To improve the thermal conductivity of the MPCM suspensions, TiO2 nanoparticles were added into the MPCM suspensions to formulate a novel thermal fluid—nanoparticle compound microencapsulated phase change material suspensions. In this paper, the rheological characteristics and shear viscosities of such slurries using a Bolin CVO rheometer (Malvern Instruments) over a range of shear rate (5–500s−1), MPCM concentration (0–20wt%) and TiO2 nanoparticle concentration 0.5wt% at temperature (20°C–40°C). The result shows that the viscosities of NCMPCM suspensions are almost independent of the shear rate, indicating Newtonian fluid under the conditions of this work and the viscosities depend strongly on temperature which fits well with the VTF function. Based on the effective volume fraction method and Vand equation, two methods that predict the viscosity of nanoparticle compound microencapsulated phase change material suspensions was analyzed and the result shows that the prediction data the effective volume fraction method fit the measurements well.

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):  
Laura Small ◽  
Fatemeh Hassanipour

This study presents numerical simulations of forced convection with parachute-shaped encapsulated phase-change material particles in water, flowing through a square cross-section duct with top and bottom iso-flux surfaces. The system is inspired by the gas exchange process in the alveolar capillaries between the red blood cells (RBC) and the lung tissue. The numerical model was developed for the motion of elongated encapsulated phase change particles along a channel in a particulate flow where particle diameters are comparable with the channel height. Results of the heat transfer enhancement for the parachute-shaped particles are compared with the circular particles. Results reveal that the key role in heat transfer enhancement is the snugness movement of the particles and the parachute-shaped geometry yields small changes in heat transfer coefficient when compared to the circular ones. The effects of various parameters including particle diameter and volume-fraction, as well as fluid speed, on the heat transfer coefficient is investigated and reported in this paper.


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