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Melting and Solidification Behaviour of Some Organic Phase Change Materials Applicable to Low Temperature Heat Storage Applications

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Abstract

The objective of the proposed work is to investigate the suitability of selected organic phase change materials (PCMs) based on their melting and solidification behaviour for low-temperature heat storage applications. The selection is carried out as per the melting point, latent heat, ease of availability and cost. The selected PCMs are lauric acid (LA), myristic acid (MA), stearic acid (SA), paraffin wax (PW) and palmitic acid (PA). Thermophysical properties viz. melting point, latent heat, thermal conductivity, viscosity, thermal expansion coefficient and density of the selected PCMs are measured and tabulated. Based on the thermophysical properties and phase change phenomena the suitability of the PCMs for latent heat storage system (LHSS) is explored. Both constrained and un-constrained melting of short-listed PCMs are examined. For comparative analysis, experiments are conducted at three different temperatures of 70 °C, 80 °C and 90 °C. The experimental results are presented in both graphical and tabular forms which include melt fraction rate, solid fraction rate, absorbed energy fraction and released energy fraction. From the obtained results, the incremental order of total melting time of the selected PCMs are observed to be LA, MA, SA, PW and PA.

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Abbreviations

\({C}_{p}\) :

Specific heat (J·kg−1·K−1)

\(g\) :

Gravitational acceleration (m·s−2)

\(L\) :

Latent heat (J·kg−1)

\(m\) :

Mass (kg)

\(Q\) :

Total heat transferred into the spherical container (kJ)

R:

Radius of the sphere (m)

T:

Temperature (K)

U:

Uncertainty

V:

Volume (m3)

Z:

Dependent variable

\(\alpha\) :

Thermal diffusivity of liquid (m2·s−1)

\(\beta\) :

Thermal expansion coefficient (K−1)

\(\mu\) :

Dynamic viscosity (kg·m−1·s−1)

\(\rho\) :

Density (kg·m−3)

σ:

Standard deviation

avg:

Average

i:

Initial

L:

Liquid

m:

Melting

s:

Solid

f:

Fraction

T:

Total

on:

Onset

PCM:

Phase change material

LHSS:

Latent heat storage system

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank SERB: Fast Track Scheme for Young Scientists, Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India for partially funding this research work (No. SB/FTP/ETA-0130/2014).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical Engineering (SMEC), Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore, India

    Gaddala Uma Maheswararao & Bibin John

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Warangal, Telangana, 506004, India

    Devanuri Jaya Krishna

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  1. Gaddala Uma Maheswararao
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Uma Maheswararao, G., Jaya Krishna, D. & John, B. Melting and Solidification Behaviour of Some Organic Phase Change Materials Applicable to Low Temperature Heat Storage Applications. Int J Thermophys 43, 113 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10765-022-03042-9

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