Numerical investigation on enhanced heat transfer performance of latent functional thermal fluid under phase transition and local motion microscale effects

• Published in: Applied thermal engineering 2024-12, Vol.257, p.124323, Article 124323
• Main Authors: Xu, Qian, Yang, Caixia, Li, Gang, Zhao, Dengke, Yang, Di, Zhu, Lidong, Yang, Huachao, Hong, Jichao, Chen, Weiwang, Ding, Yulong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Heat transfer enhancement performance; Latent functional thermal fluid; Local motion; Microscale effect; Phase transition
• ISSN: 1359-4311
• DOI: 10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2024.124323

•The parameterized characteristics of phase transition and local motion were analyzed.•The influence of MPCM parameters on microscale effects was investigated.•The heat transfer performance of MPCM-LFTF was evaluated.•The relationship between microscale effects and heat transfer was established. Aimed to establish heat transfer enhancement regulation theory based on the microscale effect of microencapsulated phase change materials latent functional thermal fluid (MPCM-LFTF), the two-fluid model (TFM) was established for the turbulent flow of MPCM-LFTF in microtubular channels. At the same time, the simulation study on the mechanism of two microscale effects, including phase transition and local motion, was carried out in this work. The phase transition was characterized by the length and position distributions within the phase transition region. The local motion was defined by the distributions of local velocity and volume fraction of MPCM. The influence of property parameters such as particle size, volume fraction, initial velocity on the parametric characterization of phase transition and local motions were investigated, while simultaneously evaluating the enhanced heat transfer performance of fluids. The study established the quantitative relationship between phase transition, local motion, and the heat transfer improvement performance of MPCM-LFTF. Results demonstrate that the dimensionless heat transfer enhancement factor (σ) of MPCM-LFTF can achieve a maximum value of 1.16 due to the synergistic effect of local motion and phase transition. The correspondence established in this study enables quantitatively controllable tuning of enhanced heat transfer performance of MPCM-LFTF.