Evaluation of thermal kinetics of microencapsulated PCM for low-temperature thermal energy storage application

Abstract

In the present investigation, the microencapsulated phase change material (PCM) thermal kinetics for low-temperature thermal energy storage applications (32 °C–53 °C) is analysed. Microencapsulated PCMs selected are CaCl2·6H2O, n-Hexadecane, n-Octadecane, n-Eicosane, Capric/Lauric acid, Paraffin wax (C30H62), and Palmitic acid (C16H32O2), respectively. Ambient air is selected as the external/heat transfer fluid which interacts with PCM materials. The thermal kinetics of microencapsulated PCMs is evaluated by selecting the solid-liquid interface position with melting time and molten fraction as the performance evaluation parameters. Among all the phase change materials, the best PCM is found to be CaCl2·6H2O with 4 cm of PCM diameter, 53 °C of external fluid temperature, and 106 min of melting time.

Keywords

• Microencapsulated PCM
• Energy storage and conversion
• Thermal analysis
• Simulation and modelling
• Thermal properties
• Thermodynamics