Preparation and Thermal Model of Tetradecane/Expanded Graphite and A Spiral Wavy Plate Cold Storage Tank

Hongguang Zhang, Tanghan Wu, Lei Tang, Ziye Ling (), Zhengguo Zhang () and Xiaoming Fang
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Hongguang Zhang: Foshan Shunde Midea Electrical Heating Appliances Manufacturing Co., Ltd., Foshan 528311, China
Tanghan Wu: Key Laboratory of Enhanced Heat Transfer and Energy Conservation, The Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China
Lei Tang: Key Laboratory of Enhanced Heat Transfer and Energy Conservation, The Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China
Ziye Ling: Key Laboratory of Enhanced Heat Transfer and Energy Conservation, The Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China
Zhengguo Zhang: Key Laboratory of Enhanced Heat Transfer and Energy Conservation, The Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China
Xiaoming Fang: Key Laboratory of Enhanced Heat Transfer and Energy Conservation, The Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 24, 1-13

Abstract: A cold storage unit can store the cold energy off-peak and release it for building cooling on-peak, which can reduce the electricity load of air conditioning systems. n-tetradecane is a suitable cold storage material for air conditioning, with a phase change temperature of is 4–8 °C and a phase change enthalpy of 200 kJ/kg. However, its low thermal conductivity limits the application of n-tetradecane for high-power cold storage/release. This paper prepares a tetradecane/expanded graphite (EG) composite phase change material (CPCM), whose thermal conductivity can be increased up to 21.0 W/m·K, nearly 100 times over the raw n-tetradecane. A novel model to predict the maximum loading fraction of paraffin in the EG matrix is presented, with an error within 1.7%. We also develop a thermal conductivity model to predict the thermal conductivity of the CPCM precisely, with an error of less than 10%. In addition, an innovative spiral wave plate cold storage tank has been designed for the tetradecane/EG composite. The power and energy density of the cold storage tank are significantly improved compared to that of raw tetradecane. The energy density reaches 40 kWh/m 3 , which is high among the organic PCM thermal storage tank. This paper shows the significance of thermal conductivity enhancement in designing a cold storage tank.

Keywords: thermal model; cold storage; phase change materials; tetradecane/expanded graphite (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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