Study of saving thermal energy using local mixed phase change materials

Abstract EN

Latent heat storage systems were reported to possess a very slow thermal response, mainly those using organic materials.

This is primarily due to the relatively low thermal conductivity organic PCM (phase change material).

In this study the paraffin –Al composite phase change material was prepared by mixing Aluminum powder into paraffin, in which paraffin wax was selected as organic phase change material, for the purpose of comparison pure paraffin and paraffin/aluminum composite with (0.1, 0.5, 0.8, 1, 2) mass fraction of aluminum samples were tested.

To point out the effect of PCM thickness, four different thickness modules were used.

It was found that increasing the thickness of PCM could decrease the heat transfer, which means more heat energy can be saved.

The Thermal conductivity value changed from (0.263 W m-1 K -1 ) to (0.918 W m-1 K -1 ) by adding the mass fraction of aluminum powder from (0.1% to 2%) correspondingly.

The experiment results concluded that increasing Al mass fractions result in decreased charging time.

Adding aluminum powder increases heat transfer, therefore this heat gain is proportional to increasing aluminum mass fraction in paraffin wax.