Fly Ash/Paraffin Composite Phase Change Material Used to Treat Thermal and Mechanical Properties of Expansive Soil in Cold Regions

Phase change materials(PCMs)can store large amounts of energy in latent heat and release it during phase changes,which could be used to improve the freeze-thaw performance of soil.The composite phase change material was prepared with paraffin as the PCM and 8%Class C fly ash(CFA)as the supporting material.Laboratory tests were conducted to reveal the influence of phase change paraffin composite Class C fly ash(CFA-PCM)on the thermal properties,volume changes and mechanical properties of expansive soil.The results show that PCM failed to establish a good improvement effect due to leakage.CFA can effectively adsorb phase change materials,and the two have good compatibility.CFA-PCM reduces the volume change and strength attenuation of the soil,and 8 wt.%PCM is the optimal content.CFA-PCM turns the phase change latent heat down of the soil and improves its thermal stability.CFA-PCM makes the impact small of freeze-thaw on soil pore structure damage and improves soil volume change and mechanical properties on a macroscopic scale.In addition,CFA-8 wt.%PCM treated expansive soil has apparent advantages in resisting repeated freeze-thaw cycles,providing a reference for actual engineering design.

Preparation and Properties of 1-octadecanol/1,3:2,4-di-(3,4-dimethyl) Benzylidene Sorbitol/Expanded Graphite Form-stable Composite Phase Change Material

A 1-octadecanol（OD）/1,3:2,4-di-（3,4-dimethyl） benzylidene sorbitol（DMDBS）/expander graphite（EG） composite was prepared as a form-stable phase change material（PCM） by vacuum melting method. The results of field emission-scanning electron microscopy（FE-SEM） showed that 1-octadecanol was restricted in the three-dimensional network formed by DMDBS and the honeycomb network formed by EG. X-ray diffraction（XRD） and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy（FT-IR） results showed that no chemical reaction occurred among the components of composite PCM in the preparation process. The gel-to-sol transition temperature of the composite PCMs containing DMDBS was much higher than the melting point of pure 1-octadecanol. The improvements in preventing leakage and thermal stability limits were mainly attributed to the synergistic effect of the three-dimensional network formed by DMDBS and the honeycomb network formed by EG. Differential scanning calorimeter（DSC） was used to determine the latent heat and phase change temperature of the composite PCMs. During melting and freezing process the latent heat values of the PCM with the composition of 91% OD/3% DMDBS/6% EG were 214.9 and 185.9 kJ·kg-1, respectively. Its degree of supercooling was only 0.1 ℃. Thermal constant analyzer results showed that its thermal conductivity（κ） changed up to roughly 10 times over that of OD/DMDBS matrix.

Preparation and Characterization of CA-MA Eutectic/Silicon Dioxide Nanoscale Composite Phase Change Material from Water Glass via Sol-Gel Method

This work mainly involved the preparation of a nano-scale form-stable phase change material（PCM） consisting of capric and myristic acid（CA-MA） binary eutectic acting as thermal absorbing material and nano silicon dioxide（nano-SiO_2） serving as the supporting material. Industrial water glass for preparation of the nano silicon dioxide matrix and CA-MA eutectic mixture were compounded by single-step sol-gel method with the silane coupling agent. The morphology, chemical characterization and form stability property of the composite PCM were investigated by transmission electron microscopy（TEM）, scanning electron microscopy（SEM）, Fourier-transform infrared（FT-IR） spectroscopy and polarizing microscopy（POM）. It was indicated that the average diameter of the composite PCM particle ranged from 30-100 nm. The CA-MA eutectic was immobilized in the network pores constructed by the Si-O bonds so that the composite PCM was allowed no liquid leakage above the melting temperature of the CA-MA eutectic. Differential scanning calorimetry（DSC） and thermogravimetric analysis（TGA） measurement were conducted to investigate the thermal properties and stability of the composite PCM. From the measurement results, the mass fraction of the CA-MA eutectic in the composite PCM was about 40%. The phase change temperature and latent heat of the composite were determined to be 21.15 ℃ and 55.67 J/g, respectively. Meanwhile, thermal conductivity of the composite was measured to be 0.208 W·m^（-1）·K^（-1） by using the transient hot-wire method. The composite PCM was able to maintain the surrounding temperature close to its phase change temperature and behaved well in thermalregulated performance which was verified by the heat storage-release experiment. This kind of form-stable PCM was supposed to complete thermal insulation even temperature regulation by the dual effect of relatively low thermal conductivity and phase change thermal storage-release properties. So it can be formulated that the nanoscale CA-MA/SiO_2 composite PCM with the form-stable property, good thermal storage capacity and relatively low thermal conductivity can be applied for energy conservation as a kind of thermal functional material.

Preparation and Thermal Properties of a Novel Modified Ammonium Alum/Expanded Graphite Composite Phase Change Material

Thermal energy storage(TES)using phase change materials(PCMs)is a powerful solution to the improvement of energy efficiency.The application of Ammonium alum(A-alum,NH4Al(SO_(4))_(2)·12H_(2)O)in the latent thermal energy storage(LTES)systems is hampered due to its high supercooling and low thermal conductivity.In this work,modified A-alum(M-PCM)containing different nucleating agents was prepared and further adsorbed in expanded graphite(EG)to obtain composite phase change material(CPCM)to overcome the disadvantages of A-alum.Thermal properties,thermal cycle stability,microstructure and chemical compatibility of CPCM were characterized by differential scanning calorimetry,thermal constant analysis,scanning electron microscopy,X-ray diffraction and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy.The cold rewarming phenomenon of CPCM was established and explained.Results showed that the latent heat and melting point of CPCM were 187.22 J/g and 91.54℃,respectively.The supercooling of CPCM decreased by 9.61℃,and thermal conductivity increased by 27 times compared with pure A-alum.Heat storage and release tests indicated that 2 wt%calcium chloride dihydrate(CCD,CaCl_(2)·2H_(2)O)was the optimum nucleating agent for A-alum.The result of TG and 30 thermal cycles revealed that CPCM exhibited favorable thermal stability and reliability during the operating temperature.The prepared modified A-alum/EG CPCM has a promising application prospect for LTES.

Thermal Analysis of Metal Foam Matrix Composite Phase Change Material

In this paper,CPCM(Composite Phase Change Material)was manufactured with metal foam matrix used as filling material.The temperature curves were obtained by experiment.The performance of heat transfer was analyzed.The experimental results show that metal foam matrix can improve temperature uniformity in phase change thermal storage material and enhance heat conduction ability.The thermal performance of CPCM is significantly improved.The efficiency of temperature control can be obviously improved by adding metal foam in phase change material.CPCM is in solid-liquid two-phase region when temperature is close to phase change point of paraffin.An approximate plateau appears.The plateau can be considered as the temperature control zone of CPCM.Heat can be transferred fiom hot source and be uniformly spread in thermal storage material by using metal foam matrix since thermal storage material has the advantage of strong heat storage capacity and disadvantage of poor heat conduction ability.Natural convection promotes the melting of solid-liquid phase change material.Good thermal conductivity of foam metal accelerates heat conduction of solid-liquid phase change material.The interior temperature difference decreases and the whole temperature becomes more uniform.For the same porosity with a metal foam,melting time of solid-liquid phase change material decreases.Heat conduction is enhanced and natural convection is suppressed when pore size of metal foam is smaller.The thermal storage time decreases and heat absorption rate increases when the pore size of metal foam reduces.The research results can be used to guide fabricating the CPCM.

Carbonate-salt-based composite materials for medium- and high-temperature thermal energy storage

This paper discusses composite materials based on inorganic salts for medium- and high-temperature thermal energy storage application. The composites consist of a phase change material （PCM）, a ceramic material, and a high thermal conductivity material. The ceramic material forms a microstructural skeleton for encapsulation of the PCM and structural stability of the composites; the high thermal conductivity material enhances the overall thermal conductivity of the composites. Using a eutectic salt of lithium and sodium carbonates as the PCM, magnesium oxide as the ceramic skeleton, and either graphite flakes or carbon nanotubes as the thermal conductivity enhancer, we produced composites with good physical and chemical stability and high thermal conductivity. We found that the wettability of the molten salt on the ceramic and carbon materials significantly affects the microstructure of the composites.