Investigation on the effective thermal conductivity of carbonate salt based composite phase change materials for medium and high temperature thermal energy storage

Chuan Li, Qi Li and Yulong Ding

Energy, 2019, vol. 176, issue C, 728-741

Abstract: This paper concerns the effective thermal conductivity of carbonate salt based composite phase change materials (CPCMs). Such materials typically consist of a carbonate salt as the phase change material (PCM), an MgO as the ceramic skeleton material (CSM) and a graphite flake as the thermal conductivity enhancement material (TCEM), and are mainly used for medium and high temperature thermal energy storage applications. Two carbonate salt based CPCMs are prepared and studied with one being NaLiCO3 and the other Na2CO3. A theoretical model based on the microstructure characteristics is proposed to predict the effective thermal conductivity of the composites. The model uses a unit cell modelled as two MgO spheres in contact with the PCM and TCEM mixture filled in the interparticle void of them. Two models reported in the literature are employed to determine the thermal resistance between the particles and to estimate the sintered neck parameters. A parallel-plate based experimental set up is constructed to measure the effective thermal conductivity of the composites. The modelling results are compared with experimental data and reasonably agreements are obtained. Various literature models for the effective thermal conductivity predication are also compared with each other and experimental data.

Keywords: Effective thermal conductivity; Carbonate molten salt; Composite phase change materials; Thermal energy storage; Unit-cell model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:176:y:2019:i:c:p:728-741

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2019.04.029

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