T-history analysis of aspect ratio effect on subcooling and solidification behaviour of phase change material in vertical glass tubes
The study deals with the effect of the tube aspect ratio on subcooling and the solidification behavior of phase change material (PCM) using the T-history method (THM) and is compared with the differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) analysis. Three tubes of different aspect ratios (l/d) and a constant length of 178 mm are chosen for this study. Infrared (I.R.) contour depicts that the inner surface of the glass tube and PCM initiate heterogeneous nucleation. The DSC heat flow graph indicates a higher degree of subcooling (DOS) than THM. The study of aspect ratio with and without insulation shows that the mean value of DOS is less in the insulated tube than non-insulated tube due to reduced cooling rate. The effect of the high aspect ratio is to increase the DOS due to increased cooling rate and, however, decrease the sensible heat discharge time to reach the plateau (tplt).