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Experimental study on heat transfer performance of mPCM slurry flow in microchannels

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Abstract

Experimental setup has been designed and tested for local heat transfer performance of mPCM slurry flow inside the microchannels under convective boundary condition following unique inverse method. The heat transfer data were collected at ninety-eight precise locations along the flow direction of mPCM slurry inside six microchannels. The experimental setup was validated for both pure water and mPCM slurry with available published literature and found to be in good agreement. The experiments were conducted with mPCM slurry for 5–10% mass concentration and laminar regime (Re = 200–1700) and compared with pure water under the same operating conditions. The effect of mass concentration on the local Nusselt number, average Nusselt number (Nuavg), pressure drop, Stefan number and bulk fluid temperature difference was investigated. The average Nu was enhanced by 12.1% and 28.3% than pure water for mass concentration of 5% and 10% mPCM slurry, respectively. Moreover, a correlation was developed to predict the average Nusselt number in laminar regime for convective boundary condition. The developed correlation predicted experimental data of this study within ± 15%.

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Abbreviations

\(A_{{\text{c}}}\) :

Cross-sectional area of microchannel

a :

Short side of rectangular cross-section

b :

Long side of rectangular cross-section

c :

Mass concentration of mPCM slurry, %

C :

Specific heat capacity, J kg−1 K−1

D :

Diameter of microchannel

D h :

Hydraulic diameter of microchannel

h :

Heat transfer coefficient

\(h_{{{\text{fg}}}}\) :

Latent heat of phase change

k :

Thermal conductivity, W m−1 K−1

L :

Length of microchannel

L u :

Length of upstream adiabatic portion

L d :

Length of downstream adiabatic portion

m :

Mass flow rate

n :

Number of microchannels

\(\Delta P\) :

Pressure drop over the length of microchannel

Q :

Heat transfer rate

T :

Temperature, K

T 1 :

Start point at which phase change begins

T 2 :

End point at which phase change completes

\(\alpha\) :

Aspect ratio, b/a

\(\varphi\) :

Volumetric concentration of phase change particles

\(\rho\) :

Density, kg m−3

\(\mu\) :

Dynamic viscosity, kg m−1 s−1

\(\lambda\) :

Heat transfer enhancement (%)

b :

Bulk fluid (mPCM slurry)

i :

Inlet

o :

Outlet

f :

Working fluid

p :

Particles of phase change material

w :

Water

h :

Hot water

Nu:

Nusselt number, hDh/k

Pr:

Prandtl number, \(C_{{\text{b}}} \mu_{{\text{b}}} /k_{{\text{b}}}\)

Re:

Reynolds number, \(\rho_{{\text{b}}} vD_{{\text{h}}} /\mu_{{\text{b}}}\)

Ste:

Stefan number, \(q/mh_{{{\text{fg}}}} - 1\)

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Acknowledgements

A PhD studentship by the University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan, EU research grant FP7-2010-IRSES-269205 and EPSRC research grant EP/L001233/1 is gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Engineering and Materials Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London, E1 4NS, UK

    Rabia Shaukat

  2. Department of Mechanical, Mechatronics and Manufacturing Engineering, New Campus, University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan

    Rabia Shaukat, Adnan Qamar, Zahid Anwar, Shahid Imran & Muhammad Amjad

  3. Mechanical Engineering Department, College of Engineering and Physics, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Dhahran, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

    Hafiz Muhammad Ali

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Contributions

All authors contributed to the revision and upgrading of the manuscript. RS contributed mainly in the experimentation and data analysis. AQ contributed in the formation of correlation development. ZA contributed in the write up of literature review and reviewing of the graphs and figures. SI contributed in writing and grammatically reviewing the manuscript. MA contributed in the writing of the manuscript. HMA contributed in the reviewing of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Rabia Shaukat.

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Shaukat, R., Qamar, A., Anwar, Z. et al. Experimental study on heat transfer performance of mPCM slurry flow in microchannels. J Therm Anal Calorim 148, 9829–9841 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-023-12353-4

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