Experimental study of a paraffin-based composite phase change material with graphite sheet, copper powder and silver copper powder

Abstract

In order to study a kind of phase change material with high thermal conductivity (TC) and high latent heat (LH) of phase change used in mine cooling work clothes. This paper prepared a phase change material based on paraffin and added graphite sheet (GS) composite material with different thickness and metal (copper powder (CP), silver copper powder (SCP)) composite material, and test the thermal parameters. The results showed that the LH of the composites increased by 16 % when the thickness of GS was increased from 0.02 to 0.08 mm. And with the addition of GS, the TC of the composite was increased by 15 %. The LH of the SCP composite is greater than that of the CP composite when the metal addition is 5 %, after which the LH gradually decreases and is the same when the mass fraction of metal added is 8 %. The TC of the composite material grow from 4.451 to 6.012 W/(m⋅K) with the addition of CP; the TC of the composite material grow from 4.457 to 20.332 W/(m⋅K) with the addition of SCP. Through the performance test of the cooling clothing, the cooling clothing can effectively improve the thermal comfort of human body.