A novel composite phase change material (PCM) composed of LiNO3/KCl with expanded graphite (EG) as a filler was prepared and investigated to determine if it had potential for use in solar energy storage applications. The addition of the expanded graphite did not significantly alter the melting temperature in comparison with the eutectic LiNO3/KCl PCM; however, the latent heat of fusion did significantly decrease with increasing mass fractions of ...
Nitrate materials play an important role in the development of latent thermal energy storage (LTES) systems. This paper examined the thermo-physical properties of sodium nitrate, potassium nitrate and their mixtures with expanded graphite (EG) additives for their applications in solar energy storage. The transient hot-wire method measured the apparent thermal conductivities of the nitrates and nitrates/EG mixtures. Results showed that nitrates/EG mixture PCMs with the highest concentrations of ...
Paraffin is an excellent phase change material (PCM) for latent heat storage, but it does not efficiently use stored energy because of its low thermal conductivity. In this study, nickel and copper foams were added to paraffin to enhance heat transfer. A Thermal Constants Analyzer measured the thermal conductivity of the paraffin composites using the transient plane source (TPS) method. The addition of copper foam enhanced the thermal conductivity of ...
Phase change materials (PCMs) store large amounts of latent heat over small temperature ranges, so their application in the thermal regulation of buildings is becoming more popular. However, PCMs have low thermal conductivities, so micro-encapsulated PCMs (micro-PCMs) are being incorporated into PCMs to enhance their performance and improve thermal conductivity. In this study, micro-PCMs were mixed with thermally conductive, inorganic gypsum powder and glass fiber to produce gypsum boards. The ...
The objective of this study was to create polymer composites with high thermal conductivity and mechanical properties. To acquire these, aluminum nitride microparticles were modified with a titanate coupling reagent of isopropyltrioleictitanate, and blended via a power-mixing method into linear low-density polyethylene. Using a thermal constants analyzer, the thermal conductivity of the composite was measured. The results concluded that the addition of aluminum nitride particles to the composite enhanced the ...
