Design and Fabrication of Passive PCM Heat Exchanger For Indoor Temperature Stabilization

Abstract

The mismatch between energy demand and supply has provoked the researchers to look for clean and alternate energy supply methods. Thermal storages are cheaper and have high density whereas solar energy is renewable. Therefore, Solar systems incorporated with phase change materials (PCMs) as a thermal storage have significant plausibility to serve in this context. These systems are not yet able to endure the energy demands significantly but are being constantly improve. The aim of this project is to design and fabricate a Solar System integrated with a PCM thermal storage heat exchanger for achieving comfortable room temperatures in winters with almost zero operating cost. This project includes a review paper on Solar PCM Systems, a conference paper, submitted and to be presented in 19th International Bhurban Conference on Applied Sciences and Technology (IBCAST), a solar PCM heat exchanger designed for a small-scaled room and a research paper based on the testing of the fabricated system. The review paper will be focused on architectures of Solar systems integrated with PCMs tested by numerous researchers. Based on the extensive research on pre-existing Solar PCM systems, a novel design approach of Solar PCM System will be devised for indoor heating in winter conditions of Pakistan. A model based on this novel design is fabricated and installed. The fabricated model is tested in winter conditions and a research paper studying the room temperature and certain other associated parameters will be written. A parametric study is also conducted using an experimentally validated Computational Fluid Dynamics analysis.