Combined effect of using porous media and nano-particle on melting performance of PCM filled enclosure with triangular double fins

Abstract

In the present study, a vertically oriented rectangular-shaped enclosure with triangular shaped double fins filled with PCM was considered as a Latent Thermal Energy Storage (LTES) system. Nine different cases including one pure PCM, three nano-PCM (having different volume fractions), two porous-PCM (having different porosity values) and three nano/porous PCM were considered to conduct the investigation. The PCM material employed for investigations was lauric acid. The copper made porous media was assumed to have porosity values of 98% and 95%. The Al2O3 nano-particles with the volume fractions of 1%, 2% and 4% combined with Lauric acid were considered as nano-PCM. The results presented that the cases with nanoparticles volume fractions of 1% and 2% could improve the melting performance. However, the case with nanoparticle volume fraction of 4% deteriorated the melting performance. In the cases with individual usage of nano-PCM the best case was related to the case with the volume fraction of 1% and resulted in about 184s time-saving. It was found that individual usage of porous media could significantly improve the melting performance; however, adding nanoparticles to the cases with porous media, regardless of volume fraction of nanoparticles deteriorates the melting performance of PCM enclosure.

Keywords

• PCM
• Phase change material
• Nanoparticle
• Thermal storage unit
• Porous media
• CFD