In this paper, we investigate sensible and latent heat transfer through heat exchanger matrix structures containing phase change material (PCM) in the interstitial spacing. The heat transfer is driven by a temperature difference between fluid flow passages and the phase change material matrix which experiences sensible heat transfer until it reaches the phase change material fusion point; then it undergoes melting or solidification in order to store, or reject, energy. In prior work, a dimensionless framework was established to model heat transfer in a thermal energy storage (TES) device much like effectiveness-NTU analysis methods for compact heat exchangers. A key difference, however, is that in TES units, the overall heat transfer coefficient, U, within the phase change material matrix varies spatially in the unit and with time during storage or extraction. Determination of a mean U for these processes is a key challenge to applying the effectiveness-NTU analysis to design of a TES unit. This paper assesses and identifies strategies for determining the matrix overall heat transfer coefficient in a TES unit from model predictions or experiments. The sensitivity of the TES energy efficiency to the matrix overall heat transfer coefficient is also explored, and the implications for some typical applications are discussed.

This work experimentally studied the convective heat transfer characteristics of a novel nanostructured heat transfer fluid: “Ethanol/Polyalphaolefin(PAO) nanoemulsion fluids” flowing through a heat exchanger made of twelve circular minichannels. Ethanol/PAO nanoemulsion fluid is a thermodynamically stable system formed by dispersing ethanol into a mixture of PAO and surfactants, in which the ethanol added inside forms self-assembled nanodroplets of tens of nanometers in diameter. These ethanol nanodroplets can serve as pre-seed boiling nuclei at elevated temperature. The Reynolds number was varied between 140 and 1200 to maintain the entire range of flow regime remained at laminar flow for both single- and two-phase convective heat transfer experiments. Pure PAO was also tested under same conditions and used as baseline data for comparison. It is found that: for single phase flow, there is no significant increase in Nusselt number of Ethanol/PAO nanoemulsion compared to that of PAO fluid in laminar flow regime. However, when the nucleation of ethanol nanodroplets inside the nanoemulsion fluid was initiated, it showed a substantial increase in heat transfer coefficient compared to that of PAO fluid: a 75% enhancement can be achieved under current test conditions. While its mechanism is not completely clear yet, it is believed that such an effect is likely related to the latent heat carried by ethanol bubbles, as well as the increased turbulence and mixing generated during the two-phase flow of nanoemulsion which can increase the heat transfer rate.

Enhanced condensation heat transfer of two-phase flow on the horizontal tube side receives more and more concerns for its fundamentality and importance. Experimental investigations on convective condensation were performed respectively in different horizontal tubes: (i) a smooth tube (11.43 mm, inner diameter); (ii) a herringbone tube (11.43 mm, fin root diameter); and (iii) three enhanced surface (EHT) tubes (11.5 mm, equivalent inner diameter): 1EHT tube, 2EHT-1 tube and 2EHT-2 tubes. The surface of EHT tubes is enhanced by arrays of dimples with the background of petal arrays. Experiments were conducted at a saturation temperature of approximately 320 K; 0.8 inlet quality; and 0.2 outlet quality; 72–181 kg·m −2 ·s −1 mass flux using R22, R32 and R410A as the working fluid. The refrigerant R32 presents great heat transfer performance than R410A and R22 at low mass flux due to its higher latent heat of vaporization and larger thermal conductivity. The heat enhancement ratio of the herringbone tube is 2.72–2.82, rated number one. The primary dimples on the EHT tube increase turbulence and flow separation, and the secondary petal pattern produce boundary layer disruption to many smaller scale eddies. The 2EHT tubes are inferior to the 1EHT tube. A performance factor is used to evaluate the enhancement effect except of the contribution of area increase.

Experimental validation was performed in this study to verify the efficacy of numerical models for predicting the location of solid-liquid interface in an axi-symmetric configuration during both melting and solidification in a Latent Heat Storage Unit (LHSU). Development of analytical solutions for predicting the location of the solid-liquid interface is often intractable in LHSU due to non-linear temperature distribution in the Phase Change Material (PCM). This is further complicated by the moving boundary problem with free convection within the liquid phase of the PCM. Analytical solutions available in the contemporary literature are based on simplified transient heat conduction models and often fail to reliably predict the charging and discharging time constants for LHSU with complex configurations. This study is designed with the goal of developing more sophisticated numerical models for the estimation of transient thermal performance of an LHSU with a simple configuration involving a shell and tube heat exchanger (HX). The LHSU utilized in this study is realized by integrating various types of Phase Change Materials (PCM) contained in the shell side of a HX. The LHSU is charged or discharged by pumping hot or cold fluids in the tube side of the HX (i.e., by pumping water at a fixed inlet temperature from a commercial chiller apparatus). This study enabled the characterization of the transient response of a LHSU subjected to conduction and forced convection heat transfer. The PCM used in this material was paraffin wax (PURETEMP 29). The HX in the LHSU consisted of a single pass straight tube (½ inch copper pipe) mounted within a single shell configuration. The shell was fabricated from plastic material using additive manufacturing (i.e., “3D Printing”). The temperature variation during melting and solidification of the PCM were measured at different radial and axial locations within the cylindrical shell that was mounted vertically. Temperature measurements were performed at different mass flowrate ranging from 0.004 Kg/sec to 0.007 Kg/sec for the same fluid temperature. The water bath temperatures were maintained at a constant temperature of 40°C for melting and 15°C for solidification. The experiment results show that the transient response of the LHSU for charging and discharging (i.e., time required for melting and solidification of the PCM) vary significantly. Comparison of the experimental data with analytical results (involving quasi-stationary models for phase change) demonstrate that natural convection is the dominant mode during the melting process, while conduction is the dominant mode during the solidification process.

In this work for the first time the performance of multi-stage shell and tube Transport Membrane Condenser (TMC) based heat exchangers are evaluated numerically. The present heat exchanger is design to work under high pressure and temperature condition for both heat and water recovery in Oxy-Combustion processes. TMC heat exchangers use the nano-porous and ceramic membrane technology to extract the water vapor and latent heat of condensation from the flue-gas. The most important application of TMC heat exchangers is in the power plants which the water vapor in the presence of other non-condensable gases (i.e. CO2, O2 and N2) exist. Effect of the different arrangement of the multi-stage shell and tube TMC heat exchangers, number of branches and number of heat exchangers in each branch on the heat transfer and water recovery have been studied numerically. A single phase multi-component model is used to assess the capability of single stage TMC heat exchangers in terms of waste heat and water recovery at various inlet conditions. Numerical simulation has been performed using ANSYS-FLUENT software and the condensation rate model has been implemented applying User Define Function. Finally, an optimum configuration for the TMC heat exchanger unit has been proposed and the results of numerical simulations are depicted in terms of temperature and water vapor mass fraction contours.

In this paper, a numerical investigation on Latent Heat Thermal Energy Storage System (LHTESS) based on a phase change material (PCM) in a metal foam is accomplished. A vertical shell and tube LHTESS made with two concentric aluminum tubes is investigated. The internal surface of the hollow cylinder is at a constant temperature above the PCM melting temperature to simulate the heat transfer from a hot fluid. The other external surfaces are assumed adiabatic. The phase change of the PCM is modeled with the enthalpy porosity theory while the metal foam is considered as a porous media that obeys to the Darcy-Forchheimer law. Local thermal non-equilibrium (LTNE) model is assumed to analyze the metal foam and some comparison are accomplished with the local thermal equilibrium model assumption. The governing equations are solved employing the Ansys-Fluent 15 code. Numerical simulations for PCM, PCM in the porous medium in LTE and in LTNE assumptions are obtained. Results as a function of time for the charging phase are carried out for different porosities and assigned pore per inch (PPI). The results show that at high porosity the LTE and LTNE models have the same melting time while at low porosity the LTNE has a larger melting time. Moreover, the presence of metal foam improves significantly the heat transfer in the LHTESS giving a very faster phase change process with respect to pure PCM, reducing the melting time more than one order of magnitude.

A number of seawater desalination technologies have been developed and widely used during the last several decades. In the current investigation, a new approach of seawater desalination process is presented, which utilizes phase change microcapsules (PCμCs) and thin film evaporation. In this process, the PCμCs are placed into hot seawater. Then the hot seawater and the PCμCs containing the liquid phase change material (PCM) are ejected into a vacuum flash chamber. A thin liquid film of seawater is formed on the surface of the PCμCs, which subsequently vaporizes. This evaporation significantly increases the evaporation heat transfer coefficient and enhances desalination efficiency. Film evaporation on the PCμCs’ surfaces decreases their temperature by releasing sensible heat. If their temperature is lower than the PCM phase change temperature, then the PCμCs change phase from liquid to solid releasing their latent heat, resulting in further evaporation. The PCμCs with solid PCM are pumped back into the hot seawater, and the salt residue left on the PCμCs can be readily dissolved. In this way, the efficiency can be increased and the corrosion reduced. A mathematical model was developed to determine the effects of PCμCs and thin film evaporation on the desalination efficiency. An analytical solution using Lighthill’s approach was obtained. Results show that when PCμCs with a radius of 100 μm and a water film of 50 μm are used, the evaporation rate and evaporative capacity can be significantly increased.

Recent developments in applications such as computer data centers, electric vehicle power electronics, avionics, radars and lasers have led to alarming increases in heat dissipation rate, which now far exceeds the capability of air cooling schemes and even the most aggressive single-phase liquid cooling schemes. This trend is responsible for a recent transition to two-phase cooling, which capitalizes upon the coolant’s latent heat rather than sensible heat alone to achieve several order-of-magnitude increases in heat transfer coefficient. Three two-phase cooling configurations have surfaced as top contenders for the most demanding applications: mini/micro-channel, jet and spray. This study will explore the implementation of these configurations into practical cooling packages, assess available predictive tools, and identify future research needs for each. It is shown that the design and performance assessment of high-flux, two-phase cooling systems are highly dependent on empirical or semi-empirical predictive tools and, to a far lesser extent, theoretical mechanistic models. A major challenge in using such tools is the lack of databases for coolants with drastically different thermophysical properties, and which cover broad ranges of such important parameters as flow passage size, mass velocity, quality and pressure. Recommendations are therefore made for future research to correct any critical knowledge gaps, including the need for robust computer algorithms. Also discussed is a new class of ‘hybrid’ cooling schemes that capitalize upon the merits of multiple cooling configurations. It is shown that these hybrid schemes not only surpass the basic cooling configurations in heat dissipation rate, but they also provide better surface temperature uniformity.

Heat pipes are used in many applications as an effective means for transferring heat from a source to a sink. The basic heat pipe typically consists of a solid metal casing within which a working fluid is sealed inside at a given pressure. The latent heat transfer via the heat pipe’s working fluid allows it to carry a larger amount of heat energy than would normally be possible with an identically dimensioned solid metal rod. Water is often used as a working fluid due to its high heat of vaporization and suitable operating range for electronics cooling. For many applications, especially space, aluminum is desired as a casing material for its high thermal conductivity, low weight, and low cost. However, water is incompatible for use with aluminum heat pipes because it forms a non-condensable gas (NCG), hydrogen, when they contact. In this work, an inorganic aqueous solution (IAS), which has thermophysical properties similar to water, has been used as the working fluid with an aluminum alloy 5052-H2 casing. The prepared thermosiphon underwent long-term lifetime testing and the results indicate no tube failure or significant NCG formation for the duration of the 9 week study. Furthermore, the data indicate that the IAS fluid not only inhibited NCG production but also led to a reduction in heat pipe thermal resistance over time. It is believed that the chemicals in IAS react with the aluminum surface to create a compact oxide layer and electrochemical reaction which prevents hydrogen generation. A secondary, hydrophilic surface coating is also generated by the fluid on top of the first oxide (passivation) layer. This hydrophilic layer is believed to be responsible for the heat transfer enhancement which was observed during testing and the reduction in ΔT (defined as T evap −T cond ) over time. Aluminum heat pipes used currently in practice utilize ammonia, or other non-water based working fluids, which have inferior latent heats of vaporization compared to water or an aqueous-based fluid such as IAS. The use of aluminum heat pipe casings in combination with a water-based fluid such as IAS has the potential to provide a significant increase in heat transport capability per device unit mass over traditional ammonia charged aluminum heat pipes.

Boiling can provide orders of magnitude higher cooling performance than a traditional air cooled system especially related to electronics cooling application. It can dissipate large quantities of heat while maintaining a low surface temperature difference. Flow boiling with microchannels has shown a lot of potential due to its high surface area to volume ratio and latent heat removal. Flow instabilities and early critical heat flux have however prevented its successful implementation. A novel flow boiling design is experimentally investigated to overcome the above mentioned disadvantages while presenting a very low pressure drop. The design uses open microchannels with a tapered manifold (OMM) to provide stable and efficient operation. Distilled, degassed water at atmospheric pressure is used as the fluid medium. Effect of tapered block with varied dimension is investigated. Heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop data for uniform and tapered manifolds for plain and microchannel chips are presented. A maximum heat flux of 281.2 W/cm 2 at 10.1 °C wall superheat is obtained with microchannel chips using a tapered manifold. The CHF was not reached as the performance exceeded the heater capacity. The maximum pressure drop obtained for the above mentioned configuration was only 3.3 kPa.

About 60% of unrecovered waste heat in US is low temperature waste heat (<230°C). In case of exhaust flows that contain water vapor over 20% by mass (baking, drying, biofuel production) the latent heat of the “wet component” plays a key role in the process of energy recovery and makes such a recovery economically feasible. Low temperature sources of waste heat have a few specific features, so majority of available techniques developed for high temperature waste heat recovery cannot be successfully applied to justify the cost-effective benefits. The paper discusses the basic requirements for appropriate equipment development along with possible options for heat and water recovery.

Bubble column dehumidifiers are a compact, inexpensive alternative to conventional fin-tube dehumidifiers for humidification-dehumidification (HDH) desalination, a technology that has promising applications in small-scale desalination and industrial water remediation. In this paper, algebraic equations for relevant mean heat and mass transfer driving forces are developed for improved modeling of bubble column dehumidifiers. Because mixing in the column ensures a uniform liquid temperature, the bubble column can be modeled as two single stream heat exchangers in contact with the column liquid: the seawater side, for which a log-mean temperature difference is appropriate, and the gas side, which has a varying heat capacity and mass exchange. Under typical conditions, a log-mean mass fraction difference is shown to drive latent heat transfer, and an expression for the mean temperature difference of the moist gas stream is presented. These expressions will facilitate modeling of bubble column heat and mass exchangers.

Phase change materials (PCMs) are promising for thermal energy storage applications, but low thermal conductivity limits their heat exchange rate with a working fluid. The nanofluid approach has been established as a method of thermal conductivity enhancement, but particle addition may have an adverse effect on specific energy storage capacity. Latent heat reduction beyond traditional theory has been observed experimentally for carbon nanotubes dispersed in paraffin wax. Nanofluid latent heat and effective thermal conductivity were analyzed to investigate the effects of particle addition on thermal properties affecting PCM energy storage performance. It is shown that particle diameter significantly impacts nanofluid latent heat, with smaller particles generating greater degrees of reduction, but has a negligible effect on thermal conductivity. A method to approximate nanofluid latent heat of fusion is presented, considering the diameter-dependent reduction observed.

Latent heat energy storage is one of the most efficient ways to store solar thermal energy. A system capable of receiving, absorbing, and collecting solar energy and storing it within a high temperature phase change material has been designed as part of a power system to be used on a low Earth orbit satellite. The system employs silicon as the phase change material and thermophotovoltaic cells for the conversion of stored heat energy into electrical energy. The effect of a void, in the phase change material, on system temperature and the associated thermophotovoltaic power production is determined through computational evaluation.

This numerical study investigates the effect of using a blend of micro-encapsulated phase change materials (MEPCMs) on the heat transfer characteristics of a liquid in a rectangular enclosure driven by natural convection. A comparison has been made between the cases of using single component MEPCM slurry and a blend of two-component MEPCM slurry. The natural convection is generated by the temperature difference between two vertical walls of the enclosure maintained at constant temperatures. Each of the two phase change materials store latent heat at a specific range of temperatures. During phase change of the PCM, the effective density of the slurry varies. This results in thermal expansion and hence a buoyancy driven flow. The effects of MEPCM concentration in the slurry and changes in the operating conditions such as the wall temperatures compared to that of pure water have been studied. The MEPCM latent heat and the increased volumetric thermal expansion coefficient during phase change of the MEPCM play a major role in this heat transfer augmentation.

Phase Change Materials (PCM) are suitable for use in Thermal Energy Storage (TES) systems as they can store and release both sensible heat and latent heat during phase change. This investigation examines the thermophysical properties and heat transfer properties of a beeswax nanoemulsion during forced convection in a circular tube. First, the beeswax nanoemulsion was synthesized using surfactants and water, which possesses a relatively low viscosity to enhance pumpability, as well as a high beeswax percentage by mass for greater latent heat storage capacity. The test section was a circular stainless steel tube, 11.3 mm in diameter and heated uniformly using an Ohmic heating method. To determine the heat transfer coefficient, the inlet and exit nanoemulsion temperatures and tube wall temperatures were measured at several axial locations. The forced convection heat transfer coefficient results were first compared to water in order to verify the setup accuracy as well as the degree of success of the PCM in heat storage ability. The experimental results indicate suitable heat transfer coefficients for a stable beeswax nanoemulsion, making it a potential candidate for charging and discharging thermal energy in thermal storage applications.

As a fundamental process during production of composite thermal energy storage systems, infiltration of phase change materials (PCM) leads to formation of voids (air pockets) inside the pores of graphite foams. The presence of voids inside graphite cells (i.e. the presence of air pockets next to the conductive walls of the porous structure) markedly affects the thermal and phase change behavior of the composite. Therefore, it is vitally important to investigate the effect of voids on phase change behavior of latent heat energy storage composites. In complementing recent work devoted to modeling of the infiltration of PCM into graphite foams, a numerical approach was employed to study the solidification of PCM infiltrated into a graphite pore in the presence of a void. For this purpose, a two-dimensional model of the porous structure was developed based on the typical geometrical features of the pores. Grid independence study was performed on different unstructured grid systems. Since more than one fluid phase is present in this problem (PCM being the liquid phase and air pocket or void as the gas phase), the volume-of-fluid (VOF) method was utilized for investigation of solidification problem and tracking the interface. Considering various forces operating at the scale of the pore (i.e. 500 microns in diameter), this problem is under the influence of surface tension, gravity, and pressure gradient. The simulation was transient and continued until the entire liquid PCM inside the pore freezes. The volume of final void space will represent a combination of infiltration and shrinkage voids. Results of the simulation indicate the presence of 9.8% void (from the infiltration process) that can greatly alter the solidification rate of the PCM inside the pore. It is concluded that formation of shrinkage void during solidification can be predicted using this multi-phase model. For verification purposes, the volume of the predicted infiltration void was compared to reported experimental measurements and the volume of shrinkage void was compared to theoretical volume change. Good agreements were found in both cases.

Phase change materials (PCMs) are promising candidates for thermal energy storage due to their intrinsically high values of latent heat. However, PCMs are unable to effectively utilize all of their energy storage capacities due to their poor thermophysical properties. In this study, the effect of graphite nanofibers (diameter = 2 to 1000 nm, length = 100μm) on the bulk thermal properties of paraffin PCM (T melt = 56 °C) is investigated. Material properties including effective thermal conductivity, specific heat, latent heat, melt temperature and thermal diffusivity are measured using a Differential Scanning Calorimeter (DSC) and comparative reference bar apparatus. Results suggest that the addition of nanostructures not only increases thermal conductivity by up to 180%, but also reduces the specific heat capacity and density of nano-enhanced paraffin, leading to improved thermal diffusivity and thus greater utilization of its latent heat for transient thermal energy storage.

Phase change materials (PCMs) inside latent heat energy storage systems (LHESS) can be used to store large amounts of thermal energy in relatively small volumes. However, such systems are complicated to design from a heat transfer point of view since the low thermal conductivity of PCMs makes charging and discharging those systems challenging on a usable time scale. Results of experiments performed on both a vertical and a horizontal cylindrical LHESS, during charging, discharging and simultaneous charging/discharging, are presented in this paper. Both LHESS are made of acrylic plastic, the horizontal LHESS has one 1/2″ copper pipe passing through its center. The vertical LHESS has two 1/2″ copper pipes, one through which hot water flows, and the other through which cold water flows. Each of the pipes has four longitudinal fins to enhance the overall rate of heat transfer to and from the PCM, therefore reducing the time required for charging and discharging. The objective of this work is to determine the phase change behavior of the PCM during the operation of the LHESS, as well as the heat transfer processes within the LHESS. Natural convection was found to play a crucial role during charging (melting) and during simultaneous charging/discharging (in the vertical LHESS). However, during discharging, the effect of natural convection was reduced in both systems.

Sintered copper porous media has found many uses in the electronics cooling industry as it effectively transfers energy while maintaining low heater side temperatures. Evaporator wicks of this type transfer heat through sensible and latent heat as the liquid evaporates. A biporous wick is particularly effective for this application as there are two distinct size distributions of pores; small pores to provide ample capillary pressure in order to drive flow through the wick and large pores to provide high permeability for escaping vapor. The modeling proposed in this work was inspired by the work by Kovalev (1987), which used a pore size distribution in order to determine the most probably pore size at a given position. The model distinguishes phases by choosing a “cutoff” pore size, above which all pores were assumed to be filled with vapor and below which filled with liquid. For a given thickness and thermophysical properties of the liquid, this 1-D model predicts a temperature difference across the wick for a given input heat flux. The modeling proposed in this work was compared to experimental data collected on biporous evaporators at UCLA for validation. It is hoped that this modeling is the starting point for more extensive modeling and optimization of biporous evaporators for phase change heat transfer devices.