Abstract
Low-temperature energy storage system (LTESS) stores the thermal energy from the sun, exhaust gases and waste heat from industries and other sources. Phase changing materials (PCM) are used as the energy storage medium for this system. The advantage of PCM is that it has higher energy storage density, with low volume. The disadvantage of PCM for using as LTESS is that the thermal conductivity of PCM is less and this requires more time period and surface area of contact, for loading and unloading of thermal energy. A solution to this problem can be incorporating graphite micro-particles in the paraffin PCM to improve its thermal conductivity. The heat transfer of LTESS is determined experimentally. Incorporating micro-particle in the PCM has improved the heat transfer of the LTESS. Maxwell–Garnett equation is used to determine the heat transfer of PCM and J-type temperature measuring probe, and sensor apparatus is used to determine the heat transfer experimentally. The encapsulation has increased the heat-retaining ability and storage time by about 40% on average for the flow rates tested.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Giro-Paloma J, Alkan C, Chimenos J, Fernández A. Comparison of microencapsulated phase change materials prepared at laboratory containing the same core and different shell material. Appl Sci. 2017;7:723. https://doi.org/10.3390/app7070723.
Zheng X, Xie N, Chen C, Gao X, Huang Z, Zhang Z. Numerical investigation on paraffin/expanded graphite composite phase change material based latent thermal energy storage system with double spiral coil tube. Appl Therm Eng. 2018;137:164–72. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2018.03.048.
Zeng JL, Chen YH, Shu L, Yu LP, Zhu L, Song L-B, Cao Z, Sun LX. Preparation and thermal properties of exfoliated graphite/erythritol/mannitol eutectic composite as form-stable phase change material for thermal energy storage. Sol Energy Mater Sol Cells. 2018;178:84–90. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solmat.2018.01.012.
Aljehani A, Razack SAK, Nitsche L, Al-Hallaj S. Design and optimization of a hybrid air conditioning system with thermal energy storage using phase change composite. Energy Convers Manag. 2018;169:404–18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2018.05.040.
Guo X, Zhang S, Cao J. An energy-efficient composite by using expanded graphite stabilized paraffin as phase change material. Compos Part A Appl Sci Manuf. 2018;107:83–93. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compositesa.2017.12.032.
Huang Z, Luo Z, Gao X, Fang X, Fang Y, Zhang Z. Preparation and thermal property analysis of Wood’s alloy/expanded graphite composite as highly conductive form-stable phase change material for electronic thermal management. Appl Therm Eng. 2017;122:322–9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2017.04.154.
Zhang D, Chen M, Liu Q, Wan J, Hu J. Preparation and thermal properties of molecular-bridged expanded graphite/polyethylene glycol composite phase change materials for building energy conservation. Materials (Basel). 2018;11:818. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma11050818.
Chinnarasu K, Ranjithkumar M, Lakshmanan P, Hariharan KB. Analysis of varying geometri structures of fins using radiators. J. Appl. Fluid Mech. 2018;11:115–9.
Avudaiappan T, Vijayan V, Pandiyan SS, Saravanan M, Dinesh S. Potential flow simulation through lagrangian interpolation meshless method coding. J Appl Fluid Mech. 2018;11:129–34.
Srinivasan R, Vijayan V, Sridhar K. Computational fluid dynamic analysis of missile with grid fins. J Appl Fluid Mech. 2017;10:33–9.
Xia Y, Cui W, Zhang H, Zou Y, Xiang C, Chu H, Qiu S, Xu F, Sun L. Preparation and thermal performance of n-octadecane/expanded graphite composite phase-change materials for thermal management. J Therm Anal Calorim. 2018;131:81–8. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-017-6556-1.
Wen R, Jia P, Huang Z, Fang M, Liu Y, Wu X, Min X, Gao W. Thermal energy storage properties and thermal reliability of PEG/bone char composite as a form-stable phase change material. J Therm Anal Calorim. 2018;132:1753–61. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-017-6934-8.
Tang Y, Lin Y, Jia Y, Fang G. Improved thermal properties of stearyl alcohol/high density polyethylene/expanded graphite composite phase change materials for building thermal energy storage. Energy Build. 2017;153:41–9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2017.08.005.
Li Y, Yan H, Wang Q, Wang H, Huang Y. Structure and thermal properties of decanoic acid/expanded graphite composite phase change materials. J Therm Anal Calorim. 2017;128:1313–26. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-016-6068-4.
Karaipekli A, Biçer A, Sarı A, Tyagi VV. Thermal characteristics of expanded perlite/paraffin composite phase change material with enhanced thermal conductivity using carbon nanotubes. Energy Convers Manag. 2017;134:373–81. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2016.12.053.
Ghasemi Bahraseman H, Languri EM, East J. Fast charging of thermal energy storage systems enabled by phase change materials mixed with expanded graphite. Int J Heat Mass Transf. 2017;109:1052–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2017.02.078.
Sharshir SW, Peng G, Wu L, Essa FA, Kabeel AE, Yang N. The effects of flake graphite nanoparticles, phase change material, and film cooling on the solar still performance. Appl Energy. 2017;191:358–66. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2017.01.067.
Cheng F, Wen R, Huang Z, Fang M, Liu Y, Wu X, Min X. Preparation and analysis of lightweight wall material with expanded graphite (EG)/paraffin composites for solar energy storage. Appl Therm Eng. 2017;120:107–14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2017.03.129.
Yang H, Wang Y, Liu Z, Liang D, Liu F, Zhang W, Di X, Wang C, Ho SH, Chen WH. Enhanced thermal conductivity of waste sawdust-based composite phase change materials with expanded graphite for thermal energy storage. Bioresour Bioprocess. 2017;4:52. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40643-017-0182-4.
Lin Y, Jia Y, Alva G, Fang G. Review on thermal conductivity enhancement, thermal properties and applications of phase change materials in thermal energy storage. Renew Sustain Energy Rev. 2018;82:2730–42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2017.10.002.
Ferrer G, Barreneche C, Solé A, Martorell I, Cabeza LF. New proposed methodology for specific heat capacity determination of materials for thermal energy storage (TES) by DSC. J Energy Storage. 2017;11:1–6. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.est.2017.02.002.
Wei G, Wang G, Xu C, Ju X, Xing L, Du X, Yang Y. Selection principles and thermophysical properties of high temperature phase change materials for thermal energy storage: a review. Renew Sustain Energy Rev. 2018;81:1771–86. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2017.05.271.
Xu T, Li Y, Chen J, Liu J. Preparation and thermal energy storage properties of LiNO3–KCl–NaNO3/expanded graphite composite phase change material. Sol Energy Mater Sol Cells. 2017;169:215–21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solmat.2017.05.035.
Ye R, Lin W, Yuan K, Fang X, Zhang Z. Experimental and numerical investigations on the thermal performance of building plane containing CaCl2·6H2O/expanded graphite composite phase change material. Appl Energy. 2017;193:325–35. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2017.02.049.
Li C, Xie B, Chen J, Chen Z, Sun X, Gibb SW. H2O2-microwave treated graphite stabilized stearic acid as a composite phase change material for thermal energy storage. RSC Adv. 2017;7:52486–95. https://doi.org/10.1039/c7ra11016b.
Liu S, Han L, Xie S, Jia Y, Sun J, Jing Y, Zhang Q. A novel medium-temperature form-stable phase change material based on dicarboxylic acid eutectic mixture/expanded graphite composites. Sol Energy. 2017;143:22–30. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2016.12.027.
Babu KA, Venkataramaiah P, Dileep P. AHP-DENG’S similarity based optimization of WEDM process parameters of Al/SiCp composite. Am J Mater Sci Technol. 2017;6:1–14. https://doi.org/10.7726/ajmst.2017.1001.
Nanthagopal K, Ashok B, Tamilarasu A, Johny A, Mohan A. Influence on the effect of zinc oxide and titanium dioxide nanoparticles as an additive with Calophyllum inophyllum methyl ester in a CI engine. Energy Convers Manag. 2017;146:8–19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2017.05.021.
Khan Z, Ahmad Khan Z. Experimental and numerical investigations of nano-additives enhanced paraffin in a shell-and-tube heat exchanger: a comparative study. Appl Therm Eng. 2018;143:777–90. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2018.07.141.
Raud R, Cholette ME, Riahi S, Bruno F, Saman W. Design optimization method for tube and fin latent heat thermal energy storage systems. Energy. 2017;134:585–94. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2017.06.013.
Sarbu I. A comprehensive review of thermal energy storage. Sustainability. 2018;10:191. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10010191.
Water IR. Thermal analysis of a thermal energy storage unit; 2017. https://doi.org/10.3390/en10020219.
Venkatesh R, Vijayan V. Performance evaluation of multipurpose solar heating system. Mech Mech Eng. 2016;20:359–70.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Dhandayuthabani, M., Jegadheeswaran, S., Vijayan, V. et al. Investigation of latent heat storage system using graphite micro-particle enhancement. J Therm Anal Calorim 139, 2181–2186 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-019-08625-7
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-019-08625-7