Experimental and simulation study on the heat transfer mechanism and heat storage performance of copper metal foam composite paraffin wax during melting process

Zilong Wang, Mengshuai Zhu, Hua Zhang, Ying Zhou, Xiangxin Sun, Binlin Dou, Weidong Wu, Guanhua Zhang and Long Jiang

Energy, 2023, vol. 272, issue C

Abstract: A visual experimental system was built to explore the effect of low-pore-density copper metal foam (CMF) on the heat transfer during paraffin wax (PX) melting, and the effective thermal conductivities of composite phase change materials (PCMs) were obtained. A three-dimensional mathematical heat transfer model was established, the microstructure of the CMF was characterized using a high-definition camera, and a physical model of the CMF ball was determined. The melting heat transfer mechanism of the composite PCMs was investigated through the experimental and simulation results, including the temperature distribution, velocity vector, solid-liquid interface, volume fraction, heat transfer mechanism, and heat storage performance. The results show that as the CMF filling ratio increased from 0% to 2.13%, the temperature gradients of the composite PCMs were 86.1, 74.6, 29.2, and 12.6 K, indicating that the filling of CMF effectively alleviates the thermal stratification phenomenon during PX melting. Incorporation of the CMF increased the thermal conductivity of the composite PCMs, but suppressed their natural convection. When the CMF filling ratio was less than 1.28%, natural convection dominated the heat transfer type during PX melting; meanwhile, when the CMF filling ratio was greater than 1.28%, heat conduction was the major heat transfer mechanism. The composite PCMs exhibited great heat storage performance when the CMF filling ratio was 1.68%, and the heat storage rate was 13.25% higher than that of pure PX with the same heat storage capacity. In addition, a theoretical calculation model for predicting the heat transfer mechanism of the composite PCMs was established, and the results show that as the CMF filling ratio increased from 0.43% to 2.15%, the natural convection proportion of heat transfer performance decreased from 82.74% to 13.99% during the melting process.

Keywords: Numerical simulation; Copper metal foam; Filling ratio; Natural convection; Thermal storage characteristics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:272:y:2023:i:c:s0360544223005613

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2023.127167

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