Enhanced entropy generation and heat transfer characteristics of magnetic nano-encapsulated phase change materials in latent heat thermal energy storage systems

The objective of the current study is to investigate the importance of entropy generation and thermal radiation on the patterns of velocity,isentropic lines,and temperature contours within a thermal energy storage device filled with magnetic nanoencapsulated phase change materials(NEPCMs).The versatile finite element method(FEM)is implemented to numerically solve the governing equations.The effects of various parameters,including the viscosity parameter,ranging from 1 to 3,the thermal conductivity parameter,ranging from 1 to 3,the Rayleigh parameter,ranging from 102 to 3×10^(2),the radiation number,ranging from 0.1 to 0.5,the fusion temperature,ranging from 1.0 to 1.2,the volume fraction of NEPCMs,ranging from 2%to 6%,the Stefan number,ranging from 1 to 5,the magnetic number,ranging from 0.1 to 0.5,and the irreversibility parameter,ranging from 0.1 to 0.5,are examined in detail on the temperature contours,isentropic lines,heat capacity ratio,and velocity fields.Furthermore,the heat transfer rates at both the cold and hot walls are analyzed,and the findings are presented graphically.The results indicate that the time taken by the NEPCMs to transition from solid to liquid is prolonged inside the chamber region as the fusion temperatureθf increases.Additionally,the contours of the heat capacity ratio Cr decrease with the increase in the Stefan number Ste.

Research on Performance Optimization of Phase Change Thermal Storage Electric Heating Device

At present, the main heating method for reducing crude oil viscosity is electric heating, and the all-day electric heating method has the problems of high energy consumption and high cost. In order to meet the needs of environmental protection and industrial production, a new type of phase change thermal storage electric heating device was designed by combining the crude oil viscosity reduction heating method with valley price and phase change materials. The results indicate that as the inlet flow rate of the working fluid increases, the outlet temperature continuously decreases. And when the outlet temperature rises to 10?C, the inlet flow rate of the device can meet the flow range of 1.413 - 2.120 m3/h. At the same time, the addition of foam nickel makes the internal temperature of PCM more uniform, and the internal temperature of PCM decreases with the decrease of porosity of foam metal. By increasing the number of electric heating rods and reducing the power of individual electric heating rods, the structure of the device was optimized to significantly improve local high-temperature phenomena. The use of this device can maintain high heat exchange efficiency and reduce production costs.

Fabrication and testing of phase change heat sink for high power LED

A novel phase change heat sink was fabricated for packaging cooling of high power light emitting diode （LED）. 3D structures as enhanced boiling structure in the evaporation surface were composed of a spiral micro-groove along circumferential direction and radial micro-grooves which were processed by ploughing-extrusion （P-E） and stamping, respectively. Meanwhile, the cycle power of refrigerant was supplied by wick of sintered copper powder on internal surface of phase change heat sink. Operational characteristics were tested under different heat loads and refrigerants. The experimental results show that phase change heat sink is provided with a good heat transfer capability and the temperature of phase change heat sink reaches 86.8 ℃ under input power of 10 W LED at ambient temperature of 20 ℃.

Enhancing Thermal Performance of Building Envelopes Using Hemp Wool and Wood Wool with Phase Change Materials

This study investigates the potential for enhancing the thermal performance of external walls insulation in warmer climates through the combination of phase change materials(PCMs)and bio-based materials,specifically hemp wool and wood wool.Experimental tests using the heat flow method(HFM),and numerical simulations with ANSYS Fluent software were conducted to assess the dynamic thermal distribution and fluid-mechanical aspects of phase change materials(PCMs)within composite walls.The results demonstrate a notable reduction in peak indoor temperatures,achieving a 58%reduction with hemp wool with a close 40%reduction with wood wool when combined with PCMs.Fluid-mechanical analysis indicates that PCMs act as efficient indoor temperature regulators by storing excess heat during hot periods and releasing it later during phase transitions.Furthermore,the homogeneous distribution of the liquid fraction and natural convection during phase change contribute significantly to the improvement in heat transfer rates,resulting in a 96%reduction compared to hemp wool and wood wool without PCMs.

Heat transfer and parametric studies of an encapsulated phase change material based cool thermal energy storage system

This work investigates the transient behaviour of a phase change material based cool thermal energy storage (CTES) system comprised of a cylindrical storage tank filled with encapsulated phase change materials (PCMs) in spherical container integrated with an ethylene glycol chiller plant. A simulation program was developed to evaluate the temperature histories of the heat transfer fluid (HTF) and the phase change material at any axial location during the charging period. The results of the model were validated by comparison with experimental results of temperature profiles of HTF and PCM. The model was also used to investigate the effect of porosity, Stanton number, Stefan number and Peclet number on CTES system performance. The results showed that increase in porosity contributes to a higher rate of energy storage. However, for a given geometry and heat transfer coefficient, the mass of PCM charged in the unit decreases as the increase in porosity. The St number as well as the Ste number is also influential in the performance of the unit. The model is a convenient and more suitable method to determine the heat transfer characteristics of CTES system. The results reported are much useful for designing CTES system.

Phase change materials as quenching media for heat treatment of 42CrMo4 steels

In the present work,paraffin phase change material is used as quenchant for the heat treatment of 42CrMo4 alloy and compared with water,air,and CuO doped paraffin.The samples were prepared based on ASTM E 8M-98 standard for tensile test and then heated up to 830°C,kept for 4 h in an electric resistance furnace and then quenched in the mentioned media.Elastic modulus,yield strength,ultimate tensile strength,elongation,and modulus of toughness were determined according to the obtained stress?strain curves.Moreover,the hardness and microstructural evolution were investigated after the heat treatment at different media.The samples quenched in paraffin and CuO-doped paraffin are higher in ultimate tensile strength(1439 and 1306 MPa,respectively)than those quenched in water(1190 MPa)and air(1010 MPa).The highest hardness,with a value of HV 552,belonged to the sample quenched in CuO-doped paraffin.The microstructural studies revealed that the non-tempered steel had a ferrite/pearlite microstructure,while by quenching in water,paraffin and CuO-doped paraffin,ferrite/martensite microstructures were achieved.It is also observed that using the air as quenchant resulted in a three-phase bainite/martensite/ferrite microstructure.

Role of Composite Phase Change Material on the Thermal Performance of a Latent Heat Storage System: Experimental Investigation

Paraffin wax is a perfect phase change material(PCM)that can be used in latent heat storage units(LHSUs).The utilization of such LHSU is restricted by the poor conductivity of PCM.In the present work,a metal foam made of aluminium with PCM was used to produce a composite PCM as a thermal conductivity technique in PCM⁃LHSU and water was used as heat transfer fluid(HTF).An experimental investigation was carried out to evaluate the heat transfer characteristics of LHSU using pure PCM and composite PCM.The study included time⁃dependent visualization of the PCM during the melting and solidification processes.Besides,a thermocouple network was placed inside the heat storage to record the temperature profile during each process.Results showed that better performance could be obtained using composite PCM⁃LHSU for both melting and solidification processes.The melting time of composite PCM⁃LHSU was about 83%faster than that of a simple PCM⁃LHSU,and the percentage decreasing in the solidification time was about 85%due to the provision of metal foam.

Effect of different heat transfer fluids on discharging performance of phase change material included cylindrical container during forced convection

In the present work,effects of various heat transfer fluids on the discharging performance of a phase change material(PCM) included cylindrical container are numerically assessed during forced convection.The heat transfer fluid air,hydrogen,water and nanofluid with alumina particles are used and the the geometric variation of the PCM embedded region is also considered.The finite element method is used as the solver.Dynamic features of heat exchange with various phases are explored for different heat transfer fluid types,Reynolds number(between 100 and 300) and PCM embedded region geometric variation(h_(x)between 0.01 d_(1) and 0.65 d_(1),hybetween 0.1 h_(1) and 0.4 h_(1)).It is observed that discharging time is significantly influenced by the heat transfer fluid type while full phase transition time for air is obtained as more than 10 times when hydrogen is utilized as heat transfer fluid.The best performance is achieved with nanofluid.When the PCM integrated region size is reduced,discharging time is generally reduced while due to the form of the geometry,vortex formation is established in the PCM region.This results in performance degeneration at the highest radius and height of the inner cylinder.Discharging time increases by about 12% when radius of the inner cylinder is increased from h_(x)=0.35 d_(1) to h_(x)=0.45 d_(1).Dynamic features of PCM temperature and liquid fraction are affected with Reynolds number while discharging time is reduced by about 48% when configurations with the lowest and highest Reynolds number are compared.

Heat transfer performance testing of a new type of phase change heat sink for high power light emitting diode

In view of the limitations of solid metal heat sink in the heat dissipation of high power light emitting diode （LED）, a kind of miniaturized phase change heat sink is developed for high power LED packaging. First, the fabrication process of miniaturized phase change heat sink is investigated, upon which all parts of the heat sink are fabricated including main-body and end-cover of the heat sink, the formation of three-dimensional boiling structures at the evaporation end, the sintering of the wick, and the encapsulation of high power LED phase change heat sink. Subsequently, with the assistance of the developed testing system, heat transfer performance of the heat sink is tested under the condition of natural convection, upon which the influence of thermal load and working medium on the heat transfer performance is investigated. Finally, the heat transfer performance of the developed miniaturized phase change heat sink is compared with that of metal solid heat sink. Results show that the developed miniaturized phase change heat sink presents much better heat transfer performance over traditional metal solid heat sink, and is suitable for the packaging of high power LED.

Numerical study on freezing-thawing phase change heat transfer in biological tissue embedded with two cryoprobes

A two-dimensional model for freezing and thawing phase change heat transfer in biological tissue embedded with two cryoprobes was established.In this model,the blood vessels were considered as tree-like branched fractal network,and the effective flow rate and effective thermal conductivity of blood were obtained by fractal method.The temperature distribution and ice crystal growth process in biological tissue embedded with two cryoprobes during freezing-thawing process were numerically simulated.The results show that the growth velocity of ice crystal in freezing process from 200 to 400 s is more rapid than that from 400 to 600 s. Thawing process of frozen tissue occurs in the regions around cryoprobes tips and tissue boundary simultaneously,and the phase interfaces are close to each other until ice crystal melts completely.The distance of two cryoprobes has a more profound effect on the temperature distribution in freezing process at 400 s than at 800 s.

Time-Temperature Charge Function of a High Dynamic Thermal Heat Storage with Phase Change Material

A thermal heat storage system with an energy content of 40 kWh and a temperature of 58°C will be presented. This storage system is suitable for supporting the use of renewable energies in buildings and for absorbing solar heat, heat from co-generation and heat pumps or electric heat from excess wind and solar power. The storage system is equipped with a plate heat exchanger that is so powerful that even with small temperature differences between the flow temperature and the storage temperature a high load dynamic is achieved. The storage system has a performance of 2.8 kW at 4 K and 10.6 kW at a temperature difference of 10 K. Thus, large performance variations in solar thermal systems or CHP plants can be buffered very well. Further a storage charge function Q(T, t) will be presented to characterize the performance of the storage.

Heat Transfer Characteristics of Work Fluid Including Phase Change Material That Flow into Heating Surface from Narrow Path

Use of the low temperature (less than 100°C) energy contributes to effective use of heat resources. The cost recovery by power generation is difficult by using an existing system (the binary cycle or the thermoelectric conversion element), because the initial investment is large. The final purpose of this research is development of the low temperature difference drive engine supposing use in a hot-springs resort as a power source for electric power generation. In order that a traveler may look at and delight a motion of an engine, it is made to drive at low-speed number of rotations. An engine cycle of this study is aimed at the development of Stirling cycle engine which can maintain high efficiency in small size. This kind of engine has simple structure;it brings low cost, and it is easy to perform maintenance. However, it is difficult to obtain enough output by this type of engine, because of its low temperature difference. This paper deals with the heat transfer characteristic that the working fluid including a phase change material flows into the heating surface from the narrow path. In order to increase the amount of the heat transmission, Diethylether is added to the working fluid. Diethylether is selected as a phase change material (PCM) that has the boiling point which exists between the heat source of high temperature and low temperature. The parameters of the experiment are additive amount of PCM, rotational speed of the displacer piston and temperature of heat transfer surface. It is shown that it is possible to make exchange of heat amount increase by adding phase change material. The result of this research shows the optimal condition of the difference in temperature in heat processing, number of revolutions, and addition concentration of PCM.

Structural Evolution and Phase Change Properties of C-Doped Ge_2Sb_2Te_5 Films During Heating in Air

We elucidate the importance of a capping layer on the structural evolution and phase change properties of carbondoped Ge2 Sb2 Te5（C-GST） films during heating in air. Both the C-GST films without and with a thin SiO2 capping layer（C-GST and C-GST/SiO2） are deposited for comparison. Large differences are observed between C-GST and C-GST/SiO2 films in resistance-temperature, x-ray diffraction, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy,Raman spectra, data retention capability and optical band gap measurements. In the C-GST film, resistancetemperature measurement reveals an unusual smooth decrease in resistance above 110℃ during heating. Xray diffraction result has excluded the possibility of phase change in the C-GST film below 170℃. The x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy experimental result reveals the evolution of Te chemical valence because of the carbon oxidation during heating. Raman spectra further demonstrate that phase changes from an amorphous state to the hexagonal state occur directly during heating in the C-GST film. The quite smooth decrease in resistance is believed to be related with the formation of Te-rich GeTe4-n Gen（n = 0, 1） units above 110℃ in the C-GST film. The oxidation of carbon is harmful to the C-GST phase change properties.

Numerical Study of Thermal Performance of Phase Change Material Energy Storage Floor in Solar Water Heating System

The conventional solar heating floor system contains a big water tank to store energy in the day time for heating at night,which takes much building space and is very heavy.In order to reduce the water tank volume even to cancel the tank,a novel structure of integrated water pipe floor heating system using shape-stabilized phase change materials(SSPCM)for thermal energy storage was developed.A numerical model was developed to analyze the performance of SSPCM floor heating system under the intermittent heating condition,which was verified by our experimental data.The thermal performance of the heating system and the effects of various factors on it were analyzed numerically.The factors including phase transition temperature,heat of fusion,thermal conductivity of SSPCM and thermal conductivity of the decoration material were analyzed.The results show that tm and kd are the most import influencing factors on the thermal performance of SSPCM floor heating system,since they determine the heat source temperature and thermal resistance between SSPCM plates and indoor air,respectively.Hm should be large to store enough thermal energy in the day time for nighttimes heating.The effects of kp can be ignored in this system.The SSPCM floor heating system has potential of making use of the daytime solar energy for heating at night efficiently in various climates when its structure is properly designed.

Exact analytical solution to three-dimensional phase change heat transfer problems in biological tissues subject to freezing

Analytically solving a three-dimensional （3-D） bioheat transfer problem with phase change during a freezing process is extremely difficult but theoretically important. The moving heat source model and the Green function method are introduced to deal with the cryopreservation process of in vitro biomaterials. Exact solutions for the 3-D temperature transients of tissues under various boundary conditions, such as totally convective cooling, totally fixed temperature cooling and a hybrid between them on tissue surfaces, are obtained. Furthermore, the cryosurgical process in living tissues subject to freezing by a single or multiple cryoprobes is also analytically solved. A closed-form analytical solution to the bioheat phase change process is derived by considering contributions from blood perfusion heat transfer, metabolic heat generation, and heat sink of a cryoprobe. The present method is expected to have significant value for analytically solving complex bioheat transfer problems with phase change.

Lattice Boltzmann simulation of phase change and heat transfer characteristics in the multi-layer deposition

The metal droplets deposition method(MDDM)is a rapid prototyping technology,implemented via metallurgy bonding within droplets.The anisotropy of heat transfer and re-melting is caused by an asymmetric deposition process.A lattice Boltzmann method(LBM)model is established to predict the heat transfer and phase change in the multi-layer deposition.The prediction model is verified by the experimental temperature profiles in existing literature.The monitoring points are set to compare the temperature profiles,and decoupling analyze the heat transfer mechanism in different positions.The negative relationships between the re-molten volume of the temperature difference,as well as the influence of the dispositive position and the relative position of the adjacent component are observed and analyzed under the heat conduction.This work is helpful to choose the appropriate temperature conditions and the optimal dispositive method.

Evaluation of Characteristics of Phase Change Heat Transfer in Ultrafine Cryoprobe

To reduce the invasiveness of cryosurgery, a miniaturized cryoprobe is necessary. The authors have developed an ultrafine cryoprobe for realizing low-invasive cryosurgery by local freezing. The objectives of this study are to estimate the heat transfer coefficient and investigate the characteristics of the phase change heat transfer in the ultrafine cryoprobe. This cryoprobe has a double-tube structure consisting of two stainless steel microtubes. The outer diameter of the cryoprobe was 550 μm. The alternative Freon HFC-23, which has a boiling point of ?82?C at 0.1 MPa, was used as a refrigerant. To evaluate the characteristics of boiling flow in the cryoprobe, the heat transfer coefficient was estimated. The derived heat transfer coefficient was higher than that obtained from the conventional correlation. Additionally, a bubble expansion model was introduced to evaluate the heat transfer mode of the phase change flow in the ultrafine cryoprobe. This model can estimate the liquid film thickness during the expansion of a single bubble in a microchannel. The experimentally measured wall superheat was much lower than that obtained from the model. Therefore, this result also implied that the heat transfer mode in the ultrafine cryoprobe should be nucleate boiling.

Comparative Heat Transfer Data for Solid-Liquid Phase Change of D-Mannitol and Adipic Acid

The goal of this work was to measure the heat transfer rates from thermofluid, Therminol 66, to two phase change materials, D-mannitol and adipic acid. It concerns the determination of heat transfer coefficients for the design of a concentrated solar energy plant requiring PCM thermal energy storage and is part of a wider set of experiments, where several PCMs were tested. An experimental installation was used with a cylindrical vessel with three tubes disposed almost horizontally (5°inclination), containing the phase change material, around which the thermal fluid flowed almost perpendicular to the tubes. The experimental installation allowed to recreate heating and cooling cycles. In order to evaluate the influence of the flow on the rate at which the heating and cooling processes took place, tests were performed at different thermofluid mass flow rates, concluding that there is no great influence, since the thermal resistance inside the tubes is much higher than on the outside. D-mannitol and adipic acid, present different phase change temperatures, 164°C for D-mannitol and 152°C for adipic acid. The average heat transfer coefficient, during the phase change process, was of 340 W/(m2K) for D-mannitol and 1320 W/(m2K) for adipic acid.

Piezoelectric Power Harvesting Process via Phase Changes of Low-Boiling-Point Medium Together with Water for Recovering Low-Temperature Heats

Low-temperature thermal energy conversions down to exergy zero to electric power must contribute energy sustainability. That is to say, reinforcements of power harvesting technologies from extremely low temperatures less than 373 K might be at least one of minimum roles for the current generations. Then, piezoelectric power harvesting process for recovering low-temperature heats was invented by using a unique biphasic operating medium of an underlying water-insoluble/low-boiling-point medium (i.e. NOVEC manufactured by 3M Japan Ltd.) in small quantity and upper-layered water in large quantity. The higher piezoelectric power harvesting densities were naturally revealed with an increase in heating temperatures. Excessive cooling of the operating medium deteriorated the power harvesting efficiency. The denser operating medium was surpassingly helpful to the higher piezoelectric power harvesting density. Concretely, only about 5% density increase of main operating medium (i.e. water with dissolving alum at 0.10 mol/dm3) came to the champion piezoelectric power harvesting density of 92.6 pW/dm2 in this study, which was about 1.4 times compared to that with the original biphasic medium of pure water together with a small quantity of NOVEC.

Microscale Infrared Observation of Liquid-Vapor Phase Change Process on the Surface of Porous Media for Loop Heat Pipe

Loop Heat Pipe (LHP) performance strongly depends on the performance of a wick that is porous media inserted in an evaporator. In this paper, the visualization results of thermo-fluid behavior on the surface of the wick with microscopic infrared thermography were reported. In this study, 2 different samples that simulated a part of wick in the evaporator were used. The wicks were made by different two materials: polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and stainless steel (SUS). The pore radii of PTFE wick and SUS wick are 1.2 μm and 22.5 μm. The difference of thermo-fluid behavior that was caused by the difference of material was investigated. These two materials include 4 different properties: pore radius, thermal conductivity, permeability and porosity. In order to investigate the effect of the thermal conductivity on wick’s operating mode, the phase diagram on the q-keff plane was made. Based on the temperature line profiles, two operating modes: mode of heat conduction and mode of convection were observed. The effective thermal conductivity of the porous media has strong effect on the operating modes. In addition, the difference of heat leak through the wick that was caused by the difference of the material was discussed.