Abstract:
The paradigm shift of energy markets from conventional energy sources to renewable
energy sources of production has created an increased demand for the creation of
efficient energy storage systems to overcome the sustainability challenges. To increase
the overall efficiency of thermal energy storage systems, the performance and capabilities
of different Phase Change Materials are studied. Fatty acids-based Phase change
materials (PCMs) are regarded as one of the most promising candidates to store and
release large amounts of latent heat, but they offer low thermal conductivity cause to
limits its applications. Nano-enhanced fatty acid-based phase change materials were
prepared in different concentrations (1 to 5%) by utilizing a two-step methodology which
includes combining mechanical agitation and ultrasonic vibration. Thermal conductivity
mater (DTC) used to determine the thermal conductivities of PCMs and NEPCMs. The
chemical structure characterization and thermal stability of NEPCMs were performed
using Fourier Transformation Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) and Thermal Gravimetric
Analysis (TGA) respectively. The thermal characteristics of charging and discharging
processes and thermos-physical properties were studied using the T-history method and
Differential Scanning Colorimetry (DSC). The T-History method is a cheap and reliable
method than DSC. The results obtained from the T-History Method are compared with
literature and DSC. A good agreement is found. The experimental results yielded by
utilizing both the techniques showed that the thermal conductivity of the NEPCMs was
effectively enhanced alternately. From the findings, it can be concluded that MA-Al2O3-1
is a promising candidate for heat transfer performance enhancement of fatty acids. The
thermal performance of PCMs and fabricated NEPCMs that filled in different geometries
concerning aspect ratio and angular orientation were also investigated numerically using
enthalpy-porosity-based numerical coding formulations. The findings revealed that the
best performance is provided by the MA-Al2O3-1 filled X / Y=0.15 case with 90 design
that showed 83.02% thermal efficiency.
