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Effective thermal conductivity for melting in PCM encapsulated in a sphere

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  • Amin, N.A.M.
  • Bruno, F.
  • Belusko, M.

Abstract

Heat transfer in phase change materials (PCMs) contained in spherical encapsulations can be modelled more simply if an effective thermal conductivity can be determined to represent the natural convection occurring within the PCMs. Previous research has shown that natural convection in PCM can be characterised by a constant effective thermal conductivity during the melting process. However, this research did not consider the impact of the increased buoyancy forces with increased temperature difference between the heat transfer fluid flowing around the encapsulation and the PCM. An experimental study was conducted on the heat transfer through a single sphere subject to varying temperature differences. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model which ignored buoyancy of the PCM in a sphere was developed. Using this CFD model, the effective thermal conductivity of the liquid portion of the PCM was determined by correlating data from the model against experimental data at various temperature differences with water as the PCM. A suitable relationship for the effective thermal conductivity was developed as a function of the Rayleigh number. This empirical correlation applies to the geometry and PCM used in this study. The study demonstrates the applicability of determining effective thermal conductivity relationships to represent natural convection in PCM thermal storage systems. This correlation can be directly applied to numerical models of PCM storage systems with spheres.

Suggested Citation

  • Amin, N.A.M. & Bruno, F. & Belusko, M., 2014. "Effective thermal conductivity for melting in PCM encapsulated in a sphere," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 280-287.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:122:y:2014:i:c:p:280-287
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2014.01.073
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    2. Tay, N.H.S. & Belusko, M. & Castell, A. & Cabeza, L.F. & Bruno, F., 2014. "An effectiveness-NTU technique for characterising a finned tubes PCM system using a CFD model," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 377-385.
    3. Jacob, Rhys & Bruno, Frank, 2015. "Review on shell materials used in the encapsulation of phase change materials for high temperature thermal energy storage," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 79-87.
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    6. Shao, Y.L. & Soh, K.Y. & Islam, M.R. & Chua, K.J., 2023. "Thermal, exergy and economic analysis of a cascaded packed-bed tank with multiple phase change materials for district cooling system," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 268(C).
    7. Antonio M. Puertas & Manuel S. Romero-Cano & Francisco Javier De Las Nieves & Sabina Rosiek & Francisco J. Batlles, 2017. "Simulations of Melting of Encapsulated CaCl 2 ·6H 2 O for Thermal Energy Storage Technologies," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-19, April.
    8. Elfeky, K.E. & Li, Xinyi & Ahmed, N. & Lu, Lin & Wang, Qiuwang, 2019. "Optimization of thermal performance in thermocline tank thermal energy storage system with the multilayered PCM(s) for CSP tower plants," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 243(C), pages 175-190.
    9. Zhou, H. & de Sera, I.E.E. & Infante Ferreira, C.A., 2015. "Modelling and experimental validation of a fluidized bed based CO2 hydrate cold storage system," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 433-445.
    10. Li, Ming-Jia & Jin, Bo & Ma, Zhao & Yuan, Fan, 2018. "Experimental and numerical study on the performance of a new high-temperature packed-bed thermal energy storage system with macroencapsulation of molten salt phase change material," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 221(C), pages 1-15.
    11. Borri, Emiliano & Sze, Jia Yin & Tafone, Alessio & Romagnoli, Alessandro & Li, Yongliang & Comodi, Gabriele, 2020. "Experimental and numerical characterization of sub-zero phase change materials for cold thermal energy storage," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 275(C).
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    13. Tao, Y.B. & He, Y.L., 2015. "Effects of natural convection on latent heat storage performance of salt in a horizontal concentric tube," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 38-46.
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    17. Hobold, Gustavo M. & da Silva, Alexandre K., 2017. "Critical phenomena and their effect on thermal energy storage in supercritical fluids," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 205(C), pages 1447-1458.

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