The thermal behaviour of a special heat exchanger filled with the phase change material dedicated for low – temperature storage applications

Abstract

The work deals with an experimental and theoretical analysis of a special heat exchanger filled with the PCM (Phase Change Material) mixture of paraffin wax capsuled in the melamine-formaldehyde membrane and water, dedicated to low-temperature storage applications. In the first part of the article, the PCM topic was introduced. The next part consists information about the designed and manufactured special heat exchanger with the PCM. During the experiment as a PCM is utilized mixture of paraffin wax in microcapsules within the water. The experimental results of temperature distributions and stored energy in the heat exchanger were compared with the theoretical model proposed in the literature. In the discussion section, the authors describe a new idea of the PCM storage tank application, which could be applied e.g. in nuclear facilities.