Heat Transfer During Constrained Melting of Graphite-Based Nanofluids in a Spherical Capsule

Author(s):  
Zi-Qin Zhu ◽  
Li-Wu Fan ◽  
Min-Jie Liu ◽  
Yi Zeng

Transient heat transfer during constrained melting of graphite-based solid-liquid phase change nanofluids in a spherical capsule was investigated experimentally. Nanofluids filled with self-prepared graphite nanosheets (GNSs) were prepared at various loadings up to 1% by weight, using a straight-chain saturated fatty alcohol, i.e., 1-dodecanol (C12H26O), with a nominal melting point of 22 °C as the base fluid. In-house measured thermal properties were adopted for data reduction, including thermal conductivity, dynamic viscosity, latent heat of fusion, specific heat capacity and density. A proper experimental approach depended on volume expansion was figured out to monitor the melting process of nano-enhanced phase change fluid in a spherical capsule indirectly and qualitatively characterize the process. A variety of boundary temperatures were also adopted to vary the intensity of natural convection. It was shown that under low boundary temperatures, a monotonous melting acceleration came into being while increasing the loading due to the monotonously increased thermal conductivity of the nanofluids. While increasing the boundary temperature leads to more intensive natural convection that in turn slowed down melting under the influence of nanoparticles because the contribution by natural convection is significantly suppressed by the dramatically grown dynamic viscosity, e.g., more than 60-fold increase at the loading of 1 wt.%. The melting rate is determined by the competition between the enhanced heat conduction and deteriorated natural convection.

2016 ◽  
Vol 138 (12) ◽  
Author(s):  
Li-Wu Fan ◽  
Zi-Qin Zhu ◽  
Min-Jie Liu ◽  
Can-Ling Xu ◽  
Yi Zeng ◽  
...  

The classical problem of constrained melting heat transfer of a phase change material (PCM) inside a spherical capsule was revisited experimentally in the presence of nanoscale thermal conductivity fillers. The model nano-enhanced PCM (NePCM) samples were prepared by dispersing self-synthesized graphite nanosheets (GNSs) into 1-dodecanol at various loadings up to 1% by mass. The melting experiments were carried out using an indirect method by measuring the instantaneous volume expansion upon melting. The data analysis was performed based on the homogeneous, single-component assumption for NePCM with modified thermophysical properties. It was shown that the introduction of nanofillers increases the effective thermal conductivity of NePCM, in accompaniment with an undesirable rise in viscosity. The dramatic viscosity growth, up to over 100-fold at the highest loading, deteriorates significantly the intensity of natural convection, which was identified as the dominant mode of heat transfer during constrained melting. The loss in natural convection was found to overweigh the decent enhancement in heat conduction, thus resulting in decelerated melting in the presence of nanofillers. Except for the case with the lowest heating boundary temperature, a monotonous slowing trend of melting was observed with increasing the loading.


Author(s):  
David Gonzalez-Nino ◽  
Lauren M. Boteler ◽  
Dimeji Ibitayo ◽  
Nicholas R. Jankowski ◽  
Pedro O. Quintero

A simple and easy to implement 1-D heat transfer modeling approach is presented in order to investigate the performance of various phase change materials (PCMs) under fast transient thermal loads. Three metallic (gallium, indium, and Bi/Pb/Sn/In alloy) and two organic (erythritol and n-octadecane) PCMs were used for comparison. A finite-difference method was used to model the transient heat transfer through the system while a heat integration or post-iterative method was used to model the phase change. To improve accuracy, the material properties were adjusted at each iteration depending on the state of matter of the PCM. The model assumed that the PCM was in direct contact with the heat source, located on the top of the chip, without the presence of a thermal conductivity enhancement. Results show that the three metallic PCMs outperform organic PCMs during fast transient pulses in spite of the fact that two of the metallic PCMs (i.e. indium and Bi/Pb/Sn/In) have considerably lower volumetric heats of fusion than erythritol. This is due to the significantly higher thermal conductivity values of metals which allow faster absorption of the heat energy by the PCM, a critical need in high-energy short pulses. The most outstanding case studied in this paper, Bi/Pb/Sn/In having only 52% of erythritol’s heat of fusion, showed a maximum temperature 20°C lower than erythritol during a 32 J and 0.02 second pulse. This study has shown thermal buffering benefits by using a metallic PCM directly in contact with the heat source during short transient heat loads.


1998 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 269-289
Author(s):  
M. Lacroix

A numerical study has been conducted for the heat transfer from a discrete heat source by natural convection in air above coupled with conduction dominated melting of a phase change material (PCM) below via a wall of finite thermal diffusivity. Results indicate that the presence of a PCM layer underneath the wall significantly delays the temperature rise of the heat source. The time delay increases as the thermal diffusivity of the wail material decreases and as the thickness of the PCM layer increases. For high thermal conductivity wall materials [Formula: see text] the steady state heat source temperatures are similar and independent of the PCM layer. On the other hand, for [Formula: see text], the steady state temperatures are higher and dependent on the thickness of the PCM layer. A correlation is proposed in terms of the thickness of the PCM layer and the thermal conductivity ratio of the wall.


Author(s):  
C. J. Ho ◽  
M. W. Chen ◽  
Z. W. Li

In this study we aim to identify effects due to uncertainties in effective dynamic viscosity and thermal conductivity of nanofluid on laminar natural convection heat transfer in a square enclosure. Numerical simulations have been undertaken incorporating a homogeneous solid-liquid mixture formulation for the two-dimensional buoyancy-driven convection in the enclosure filled with alumina-water nanofluid. Two different formulas from the literature are each considered for the effective viscosity and thermal conductivity of the nanofluid. Simulations have been carried out for the pertinent parameters in the following ranges: the Rayleigh number, Raf = 103 ∼ 106 and the volumetric fraction of alumina nanoparticles, φ = 0 ∼ 4%. Significant difference in the effective dynamic viscosity enhancement of the nanofluid calculated from the two adopted formulas, other than that in the thermal conductivity enhancement, was found to play as a major factor, thereby leading to contradictory results concerning the heat transfer efficacy of using nanofluid in the enclosure.


2021 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-151
Author(s):  
Nesrine Boulaktout ◽  
El Hacene Mezaache ◽  
Abdelghani Laouer

This paper investigates the effect of fins orientations of a horizontal two fins annular tube heat exchanger on enhancing the heat transfer during the melting process of n-eicosane, as phase change material (PCM) used in thermal storage systems. Based on the enthalpy-porosity method, two-dimensional model is performed and solved by Ansys Fluent. The impact of the fins orientation on melting rate, thermal conduction and natural convection, as the angle of the system varied from 0º (vertical fins) to 90º (horizontal fins) are discussed. Numerical predictions are validated by comparison with experimental data and numerical results reported in the literature. Good agreements are achieved. The results show that at initial time of the melting process, the conduction heat transfer is dominant. During the melting process, the heat transfer in the horizontal fins is more effective while the upper half of PCM melts and less effective as the lower half of PCM melts because fin arrangement resists natural convection occurs. However, the effectiveness of heat transfer and convection in the vertical fins is almost constant during the entire melting process. From comparison, better heat transfer performance is achieved with vertical fins system; complete melting was reduced 250% compared to horizontal fins case.


Author(s):  
M Khamis Mansour

This article presents numerical and experimental simulation of three-dimensional conjugate heat transfer problem in mini-scaled thermal storage system. The conjugate problem includes melting process of phase change material in the presence of natural convection during laminar flow of heat transfer fluid through circular minichannel. The paraffin wax is used as a phase change material while the water is used as a heat transfer fluid. The main objective of this study is to investigate the effect of the phase change material natural convection during the melting process on the heat transfer fluid thermal characteristics as well as the impact of the natural convection on the melting performance itself. The thermal characteristics are represented by local Nusselt number ( Nu) and local surface temperature. The melting performance is evaluated by fusion time and liquid fraction profile. Two inlet temperatures and velocities of the heat transfer fluid are adopted to highlight the effect of the natural convection. Combination of the inlet temperatures and velocities of the heat transfer fluid forms four cases: case_1 (at [Formula: see text] = 353 °K, [Formula: see text] = 1 m/s), case_2 (at [Formula: see text] = 453 °K, [Formula: see text] = 1 m/s), case_3 (at [Formula: see text] = 353 °K, [Formula: see text] = 0.1 m/s), and case_4 (at [Formula: see text] = 453 °K, [Formula: see text] = 0.1 m/s). Experimental test rig was constructed to verify the computational results and good agreement between both results was achieved. The study shows that the heat transfer fluid encounters an erratic thermal behavior during the phase change material melting process. For example, the local surface temperature experiences dramatic increase and decrease at certain sections of the channel length. The magnitude of this temperature inconsistency interrelates closely to the strength of natural convection impact, and this can expose the minichannel (which has short length) to severe wall thermal stress. The local Nu experiences improvement in some section of the channel and at the same time it suffers from drastic deterioration in its value particularly at the channel end at which the convection current accommodates. The case with the lowest inlet velocity and the highest inlet temperature has the smallest fusion time at expense of the largest heat transfer fluid bulk temperature gradient before reaching the fusion time. The study is considered as a benchmark and helpful guidelines in the design of small-scaled thermal storage systems of phase change material.


1980 ◽  
Vol 102 (4) ◽  
pp. 636-639 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. R. Parsons ◽  
J. C. Mulligan

A study of the onset of transient natural convection from a suddenly heated, horizontal cylinder of finite diameter is presented. The termination of the initial conductive and “locally” conuectiue heat transfer regime which precedes the onset of global natural convection is treated as a thermal stability phenomenon. An analysis is presented wherein the effects of finite cylinder diameter, cylinder heat capacity, and cylinder thermal conductivity are included in calculations of the convective delay time. A simple experimental apparatus is described and data presented. The thermal stability analysis is confirmed experimentally and data is presented which indicates localized natural convection prior to global motion.


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.


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