Category: Transient Plane Source
Author(s): Ali A. Alemrajabi, Rahmatollah Khodabandeh, Sadegh Motahar
Keywords: carbon nanotubes, cnts, fillers, nanocomposites, pcms, phase change materials, thermal conductivity, thermal constants analyzer, tps method
Abstract: The use of organic compounds as phase change materials (PCMs) is limited by the low thermal conductivity of these compounds. In this study, multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and carbon nanofibers (CNFs) were dispersed in n-octadecane to determine if this nanocomposite PCM would have a higher thermal conductivity than that of pure n-octadecane. The thermal conductivity of the nanocomposite PCMs was measured using the transient plane source (TPS) method at mass fractions from 0 to 5% and temperatures from 5 to 55oC. It was determined that the PCM/MWCNT composites were more thermally conductive than the PCM/CNF composites with the same mass fraction of filler in both the liquid phase and the solid phase. In both types of nanocomposites that were prepared, it was found that the thermal conductivity increased with increasing filler content. A predictive model was also developed to assist in predicting the performance of a thermal storage composite.
Reference: Heat and Mass Transfer (Online, 2015)
DOI: 10.1007/s00231-015-1678-0