A new composite phase change material for cold thermal energy storage applications is described in this paper. The authors combined dodecane into hydrophobic fumed silica to create a form stable PCM. Physical characteristics were studied using scanning through electron micrographs and Fourier transformation infrared. A thermal analyzer was used to measure the thermal conductivity of the composite, which was a desired low value needed for this type of application. An ...
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 ...
Thermophysical and structural properties of sintered ore particles (SOPs) were determined to expand upon the little documented information there is regarding the properties of these materials. In addition to this, a fractal model was also developed for the prediction of thermal conductivity in SOPs as a function of porosity. The experimental results revealed that the specific heat capacity increased with increasing temperature and that the thermal conductivity decreased with increasing ...
A nanoparticle-enhanced phase change material (NePCM) is prepared by the dispersal of carbon nanotubes in 1-dodecanol. The objective of this experiment was to determine if the addition of nanoparticles could increase the thermal conductivity of the base PCM while resulting in a NePCM that would still have the required properties of a functional PCM. It was found that the thermal conductivity was enhanced through the addition of the carbon nanotubes; ...
The authors outline a method of enhancing the thermal properties of a paraffin phase change material through the addition of herringbone-style graphite nanofibers (HGNFs). It was found that the solid-phase thermal conductivity increased exponentially with the presence of HGNFs; however, a significant increase in the liquid-phase thermal conductivity was not observed until the concentration of HGNFs in the composite PCM reached a point above the percolation threshold. The volumetric heat ...
