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Convective melting and freezing of phase change materials encapsulated within small diameter polymer tubes
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Convective melting and freezing of phase change materials encapsulated within small diameter polymer tubes

Deborah Kapilow, Y. Grace Hsuan, Ying Sun, Matthew McCarthy and Electric Power Research Inst. (EPRI), Palo Alto, CA (United States)
Experimental thermal and fluid science, v 92(C), pp 259-269
01 Apr 2018
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.expthermflusci.2017.11.012
Featured in Collection :   UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
url
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.expthermflusci.2017.11.012View
Accepted (AM)Open Access (Publisher-Specific),  Open

Abstract

Engineering Engineering, Mechanical Physical Sciences Physics Physics, Fluids & Plasmas Science & Technology Technology Thermodynamics
This work characterizes the inward melting and freezing of phase change materials (PCMs) within small diameter polymer tubes under convective boundary conditions. Using air as the heat transfer fluid, a custom-built experimental apparatus was used to control the convective heating and cooling of vertically oriented PCM-filled tubes with an outer diameter of 3.175 mm. Various air speeds and air temperatures were investigated, as well as the effects of wall thickness and material properties, using three different polymer encapsulant tubes. Volume fraction, latent heat transfer rate, and the associated overall heat transfer coefficient have been measured experimentally during the transient melting and freezing processes. Using a commercially available paraffin-based PCM with a nominal melting temperature of 35 degrees C, phase change times ranging from 50s to 180 s were recorded with air speeds and air temperatures of 4.7-15.3 m/s and 25.3-62.6 degrees C, respectively. Overall latent heat transfer coefficients as high as 200 W/m(2)K were measured and shown to decay with time as the PCM changes phase during inward melting and freezing. For the thinnest encapsulants tested here, the results were consistent with a simplified one-dimensional quasi-steady-state thermal circuit model. Deviations from this model were observed and explained, including the importance of the wall thickness and thermal conductivity of the encapsulant.

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15 citations in Web of Science
16 citations in Scopus

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Web of Science research areas
Engineering, Mechanical
Physics, Fluids & Plasmas
Thermodynamics
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