Volume 16: Low Carbon Cities and Urban Energy Systems: Part V

An Experimental Investigation on the Control Mechanism and Heat Transfer Enhancement of Composite Phase Change Materials Hanxue Yang, Guanhua Zhang, Zhiqiang Liu, Xiaoyu Yan, Wei Lu, Zilong Wang

Abstract

In order to obtain phase change materials with suitable melting point, latent heat and thermal conductivity, this paper employed the liquid paraffin with a melting point of 17°C and solid paraffin with a melting point of 41°C in different proportions to fabricate PCM composites. By adjusting the mixing ratio of short-chain hydrocarbons and long-chain hydrocarbons in paraffin wax, phase change materials with different phase change ranges were obtained to meet the requirements of practical applications. A variety of copper foam /paraffin composite phase change materials with different porosities and pore densities were prepared by the melt dipping method. The influence of the porosity and pore density on the thermal conductivity of copper foam/paraffin composite was explored. The experimental results show that mixed paraffin can control the melting point and latent heat of composite phase change materials. Copper foam can greatly increase the thermal conductivity of composite phase change materials with the porosity has a greater impact and the pore density has a less effect. The thermal conductivity of composites can be increased by a maximum 20 times.

Keywords Phase change materials (PCM), Composites, Control mechanism, Copper foam, Heat transfer enhancement