RESEARCH ARTICLE

Heat transfer of phase change materials (PCMs) in porous materials

  • C Y ZHAO , 1 ,
  • D ZHOU 2 ,
  • Z G WU 2
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  • 1. School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China; School of Engineering, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK
  • 2. School of Engineering, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK

Received date: 23 Oct 2010

Accepted date: 21 Dec 2010

Published date: 05 Jun 2011

Copyright

2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

Abstract

In this paper, the feasibility of using metal foams to enhance the heat transfer capability of phase change materials (PCMs) in low- and high-temperature thermal energy storage systems was assessed. Heat transfer in solid/liquid phase change of porous materials (metal foams and expanded graphite) at low and high temperatures was investigated. Organic commercial paraffin wax and inorganic calcium chloride hydrate were employed as the low-temperature materials, whereas sodium nitrate was used as the high-temperature material in the experiment. Heat transfer characteristics of these PCMs embedded with open-cell metal foams were studied. Composites of paraffin and expanded graphite with a graphite mass ratio of 3%, 6%, and 9% were developed. The heat transfer performances of these composites were tested and compared with metal foams. The results indicate that metal foams have better heat transfer performance due to their continuous inter-connected structures than expanded graphite. However, porous materials can suppress the effects of natural convection in liquid zone, particularly for PCMs with low viscosities, thereby leading to different heat transfer performances at different regimes (solid, solid/liquid, and liquid regions). This implies that porous materials do not always enhance heat transfer in every regime.

Cite this article

C Y ZHAO , D ZHOU , Z G WU . Heat transfer of phase change materials (PCMs) in porous materials[J]. Frontiers in Energy, 2011 , 5(2) : 174 -180 . DOI: 10.1007/s11708-011-0140-3

Acknowledgments.

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51071184), the UK Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC Grant No. EP/F061439/1), and the National Basic Research Program of China (No. 2011CB610306).
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