Investigation of a plastic injected container of PCM for temperature rapid-balancing and long-maintaining

Abstract

In this study, a Phase Change Material (PCM) container made of plastic by injection molding process has been designed in a suitable structure to store PCMs in combination with a vacuum layer acting as an excellent insulated outer cover. The target of this design is to create a rapid temperature balancing container which can firstly absorb heat from the stored substance to change its temperature within several minutes into a desired value, set by the melting temperature and type of used PCMs, and then keep that temperature last longer as the absorbed heat is later released. Models in different shape using a commercial PCM (called PW-63) with melting temperature of 63°C have been made and tested carefully in laboratory. The best results, derived from the multi-layer structure, have shown that average temperature of boiled water (stored substance) reached the desired range of 55 ~ 65°C within only about 15 minutes and this temperature range lasted within nearly 5 hours. This time is even much longer for lower temperature desired value. This is a big advantage compared with vacuum container without PCM (in which the desired range was reached after about 4 hours but lasted for only more than 2 hours), which is normally considered a very good device for isolating storage. With this good performance, the plastic multi-layer PCM container can become a good solution for stainless steel PCM container in heat transfer enhancement in latent heat storage applications using PCMs. It also brings along other advantages compared with stainless steel container such as lighter weight, cheaper, faster and easier mass-production by means of plastic injection process.