Category: Transient Plane Source
Author(s): Peng Chen, Tao Xu, Xuenong Gao, Yaqin Wang, Yutang Fang, Zhaowen Huang, Zhengguo Zhang
Keywords: Electronic passive thermal protection, Nano-SiO2, Paraffin, paraffin (PA), Phase change material, Thermal Conductivity, Transient Plane Source, Transient plane source (TPS) method
Abstract: Controlling the temperature of electronics under harsh conditions is important for vehicular, aerospace, and other industrial applications. Phase change materials (PCMs), such as paraffin, use latent thermal energy storage (LTES) to store large amounts of latent heat over small temperature ranges, and are being investigated for use in industrial sectors. However, PCMs have low thermal insulation capabilities so porous matrices with low thermal conductivities are often used to decrease the thermal conductivity of PCMs. In this study, the thermal properties of three nano silicon dioxide (nano-SiO2) particles (NS1, NS2, NS3), each with different diameters (15 nm, 30 nm, 50 nm, respectively) were tested with paraffin as the PCM. A thermal constants analyzer (TPS) was used to measure the thermal conductivities of the samples using the transient plane source (TPS) method. Results showed that the NS1 paraffin matrix had the highest adsorption efficiency toward paraffin, and had the lowest thermal conductivity. As the fraction of NS1 particles in the paraffin increased, the thermal conductivity decreased in a non-linear trend. Out of all the nano-SiO2 samples that were tested, the 15 nm particles (NS1P) had the lowest thermal conductivity and would be the best insulative additives for PCMs.
Reference: Applied Thermal Engineering, 96 (2016) 699-707
DOI: 10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2015.11.106