scholarly journals Core-sheath Electrospinning of Shea Butter and Cellulose Acetate to Enhance Heat Transfer in Protective Clothing

Author(s):  
Hye Jin Kim ◽  
Ji Hun Park ◽  
Syifa Salsabila ◽  
Changsang Yun

Abstract Protective clothing for health workers requires heat transfer in hot and humid environments. To study the thermal conduction of phase-change materials and protect them from leakage, we selected skin-friendly shea-butter due to its suitable melting temperature, and the electrospinning processibility of biocompatible cellulose acetate. The shea-butter as a phase-change material was encapsulated in electrospun cellulose acetate fibres within a core/sheath structure, which was stabilised by two concentric Taylor cones during coaxial electrospinning. Transmission and scanning electron microscopy revealed a blood-in-tube vessel-like morphology. Next, differential scanning calorimetry and thermogravimetric analyses confirmed the heat capacity of shea-butter (latent heat of fusion: 42.73 J/g; thermal conductivity: 1.407 W/m∙K). The flow rate of the core was proportional to the heat capacity of the shea-butter/cellulose acetate fibres. This was consistent with the finding that the electrospun fibres of the highest-ratio shea-butter (16.19%) had the highest thermal conductivity (0.421 J/g∙K). The shea-butter:cellulose acetate ratio was approximately 15:80. The efficacy of heat transfer for the core/sheath fibres in human clothing was assessed by measuring skin temperatures at 13 sites in six males aged 25 to 35 under two conditions: wearing a mask and hood with attached cellulose acetate fibres in the presence and absence of shea-butter. The mean difference in skin temperatures (0.5 ℃) between the two conditions was significant. Coaxial electrospinning of shea-butter/cellulose acetate fibres is therefore promising for protective clothing with efficient heat-transfer in the use of a large area.

Author(s):  
Zenghu Han ◽  
Bao Yang ◽  
Yung Y. Liu

The colloidal dispersion of solid nanoparticles (1–100nm) has been shown experimentally to be an effective way to enhance the thermal conductivity of heat transfer fluids. Moreover, large particles (micrometers to tens of micrometers) of phase-change materials have long been used to make slurries with improved thermal storage capacity. Here, a hybrid concept that uses nanoparticles made of phase-change materials is proposed to simultaneously enhance the effective thermal conductivity and the effective heat capacity of fluids. Water-in-perfluorohexane nanoemulsion fluids and indium-in-polyalphaolefin nanofluids are examples of fluids that have been successfully synthesized for experimental studies of their thermophysical properties (i.e., thermal conductivity, viscosity, and heat capacity) as functions of particle loading and temperature. The thermal conductivity of perfluorohexane was found to increase by up to 52% for nanoemulsion fluids containing 12 vol. % water nanodroplets with a hydrodynamic radius of ∼10 nm. Also observed in water-in-perfluorohexane nanoemulsion fluids was a remarkable improvement in effective heat capacity, about 126% for 12 vol. % water loading, due to the melting-freezing transitions of water nanodroplets to ice nanoparticles and vice versa. The increases in the thermal conductivity and dynamic viscosity of these nanoemulsion fluids were found to be highly nonlinear against water loading, indicating the important roles of the hydrodynamic interaction and the aggregation of nanodroplets. For indium-in-polyalphaolefin nanofluids, the thermal conductivity enhancement increases slightly with increasing temperature (i.e., about 10.7% at 30°C to 12.9% at 90°C) with a nanoparticle loading of 8 vol. %. The effective volumetric heat capacity can be increased by about 20% for the nanofluids containing 8 vol. % indium nanoparticles with an average diameter of 20 nm. Such types of phase-change nanoemulsions and nanofluids possess long-term stability and can be mass produced without using as-prepared nanoparticles. The observed melting-freezing phase transitions of nanoparticles of phase-change materials (i.e., water nanodroplets and indium nanoparticles) considerably augmented the effective heat capacity of the base fluids. The use of phase-change nanoparticles would thus provide a way to substantially enhance the thermal transport properties of conventional heat transfer fluids. Future development of these phase-change nanofluids is expected to open new opportunities for studies of thermal fluids.


Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (12) ◽  
pp. 3241
Author(s):  
Krzysztof Powała ◽  
Andrzej Obraniak ◽  
Dariusz Heim

The implemented new legal regulations regarding thermal comfort, the energy performance of residential buildings, and proecological requirements require the design of new building materials, the use of which will improve the thermal efficiency of newly built and renovated buildings. Therefore, many companies producing building materials strive to improve the properties of their products by reducing the weight of the materials, increasing their mechanical properties, and improving their insulating properties. Currently, there are solutions in phase-change materials (PCM) production technology, such as microencapsulation, but its application on a large scale is extremely costly. This paper presents a solution to the abovementioned problem through the creation and testing of a composite, i.e., a new mixture of gypsum, paraffin, and polymer, which can be used in the production of plasterboard. The presented solution uses a material (PCM) which improves the thermal properties of the composite by taking advantage of the phase-change phenomenon. The study analyzes the influence of polymer content in the total mass of a composite in relation to its thermal conductivity, volumetric heat capacity, and diffusivity. Based on the results contained in this article, the best solution appears to be a mixture with 0.1% polymer content. It is definitely visible in the tests which use drying, hardening time, and paraffin absorption. It differs slightly from the best result in the thermal conductivity test, while it is comparable in terms of volumetric heat capacity and differs slightly from the best result in the thermal diffusivity test.


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.


2013 ◽  
Vol 860-863 ◽  
pp. 590-593
Author(s):  
Cha Xiu Guo ◽  
Ding Bao Wang ◽  
Gao Lin Hu

High conductivity porosity materials are proposed to enhance the phase change materials (PCM) in order to solve the problem of low conductivity of PCM in the latent heat storage device (LHSD), and two-dimensional numerical simulation is conducted to predict the performance of the PCM by CFD software. During the phase change process, the PCM is heated from the solid state to the liquid phase in the process of melting and from the liquid phase to the solid state in the solidification process. The results show that porosity materials can improve heat transfer rate effectively, but the effect of heat transfer of Al foam is superior to that of graphite foam although the heat storage capacity is almost the same for both. The heat transfer is enhanced and the solidification time of PCM is decreased since the effective thermal conductivity of composite PCM is increased.


Author(s):  
D. Zhou ◽  
C. Y. Zhao

Phase change materials (PCMs) have been widely used for thermal energy storage systems due to their capability of storing and releasing large amounts of energy with a small volume and a moderate temperature variation. Most PCMs suffer the common problem of low thermal conductivity, being around 0.2 and 0.5 for paraffin and inorganic salts, respectively, which prolongs the charging and discharging period. In an attempt to improve the thermal conductivity of phase change materials, the graphite or metallic matrix is often embedded within PCMs to enhance the heat transfer. This paper presents an experimental study on heat transfer characteristics of PCMs embedded with open-celled metal foams. In this study both paraffin wax and calcium chloride hexahydrate are employed as the heat storage media. The transient heat transfer behavior is measured. Compared to the results of pure PCMs samples, the investigation shows that the additions of metal foams can double the overall heat transfer rate during the melting process. The results of calcium chloride hexahydrate are also compared with those of paraffin wax.


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.


Author(s):  
Aditya Kuchibhotla ◽  
Debjyoti Banerjee

Stable homogeneous colloidal suspensions of nanoparticles in a liquid solvents are termed as nanofluids. In this review the results for the forced convection heat transfer of nanofluids are gleaned from the literature reports. This study attempts to evaluate the experimental data in the literature for the efficacy of employing nanofluids as heat transfer fluids (HTF) and for Thermal Energy Storage (TES). The efficacy of nanofluids for improving the performance of compact heat exchangers were also explored. In addition to thermal conductivity and specific heat capacity the rheological behavior of nanofluids also play a significant role for various applications. The material properties of nanofluids are highly sensitive to small variations in synthesis protocols. Hence the scope of this review encompassed various sub-topics including: synthesis protocols for nanofluids, materials characterization, thermo-physical properties (thermal conductivity, viscosity, specific heat capacity), pressure drop and heat transfer coefficients under forced convection conditions. The measured values of heat transfer coefficient of the nanofluids varies with testing configuration i.e. flow regime, boundary condition and geometry. Furthermore, a review of the reported results on the effects of particle concentration, size, temperature is presented in this study. A brief discussion on the pros and cons of various models in the literature is also performed — especially pertaining to the reports on the anomalous enhancement in heat transfer coefficient of nanofluids. Furthermore, the experimental data in the literature indicate that the enhancement observed in heat transfer coefficient is incongruous compared to the level of thermal conductivity enhancement obtained in these studies. Plausible explanations for this incongruous behavior is explored in this review. A brief discussion on the applicability of conventional single phase convection correlations based on Newtonian rheological models for predicting the heat transfer characteristics of the nanofluids is also explored in this review (especially considering that nanofluids often display non-Newtonian rheology). Validity of various correlations reported in the literature that were developed from experiments, is also explored in this review. These comparisons were performed as a function of various parameters, such as, for the same mass flow rate, Reynolds number, mass averaged velocity and pumping power.


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