Experimental research on flow and heat transfer characteristics of latent functional thermal fluid with microencapsulated phase change materials

• Published in: International journal of heat and mass transfer 2017-12, Vol.115, p.737-742
• Main Authors: Liu, Chenzhen, Ma, Zhengyuan, Wang, Jiachen, Li, Yimin, Rao, Zhonghao
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Convective heat transfer; Convective heat transfer coefficient; Energy storage; Ethanol; Heat transfer; Heat transfer coefficients; Latent functional thermal fluid; Microencapsulated phase change material; Phase change materials; Physical properties; Slurries; Slurry; Specific heat; Thermal energy; Thermodynamic properties
• ISSN: 0017-9310; 1879-2189
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2017.07.107

•MicroPCM slurries with different mass fractions of MicroPCM are prepared.•The physical stability of MicroPCM slurries is investigated.•The heat capacity of MicroPCM slurry is higher than that of base fluid.•The convective heat transfer coefficient of MicroPCM slurry is higher than that of base fluid.•The MicroPCM slurry has great potential applications in heat transport. Latent functional thermal fluid (LFTF) has a higher heat capacity compared with traditional fluid. In this paper, microencapsulated phase change material (MicroPCM) slurry as LFTF, which was composed of water/ethanol as base fluid and parafin/melaine resin MicroPCM as additive, was prepared. The physical and thermal properties of the slurry with different MicroPCM mass fractions had been studied. In addition, the heat transfer performance of base fluid and MicroPCM slurry in a horizontal circular tube had been experimentally investigated. The results showed that the convective heat transfer coefficients of MicroPCM slurry were about 2 times and 3 times higher than that of base fluid when the mass fractions of MicroPCM were 5% and 10%, respectively. This indicated that the MicroPCM had great potential applications in heat transport and thermal energy storage.