Abstract
Two of the important aspects for the successful utilization of phase change materials (PCMs) for thermal energy storage systems are compatibility with container materials and stability. Therefore, the present study is focused on testing the corrosion resistance and surface characteristics of metals in contact with PCMs and thermal behavior of PCMs with heating/cooling cycles. The PCM selection is made by targeting low temperature (<100 °C) heat storage applications. The PCMs considered are paraffin wax, sodium acetate tri-hydrate, lauric acid, myristic acid, palmitic acid, and stearic acid. The metal specimens tested are aluminum, copper, and stainless steel because of their wide usage in thermal equipment. The tests are performed by the method of immersion corrosion test, and ASTM G1 standards are followed. The experiments are carried out at 80 °C and room temperature (30 °C) for the duration of 10, 30, and 60 days. Pertaining to thermal stability 1500 melting/freezing cycles are performed. Investigation has been carried out in terms of corrosion rate, SEM analysis of metal specimens, appearance of PCMs, and variation of thermophysical properties at 0th, 1000th, and 1500th thermal cycles. The most affected area of corrosion, including the dimension of pits, is presented, and comparison is made. Based on the corrosion experiments, recommendations are made for the metal–PCM pairs. Pure sodium acetate trihydrate is observed to suffer from phase segregation and supercooling. After 1500 thermal cycles, the variation in melting and freezing point temperatures for rest of the five PCMs are in the range of − 1.63 to 1.57 °C and − 4.01 to 2.66 °C. Whereas, reduction in latent heat of melting and freezing are in the range of 17.6–28.95% and 15.2–26.78%.
Highlights
Due to the rapid growth of population, improved living standard, and rapid industrialization all over the world, the energy demand in terms of conventional energy resources is rapidly increasing
It is clearly evident that Cu in lauric acid (LA) at both temperatures have maximum corrosion
At 30 °C, the corrosion rate (CR) for LA is followed by paraffin wax (PW), Sodium acetate trihydrate (SAT), stearic acid (SA), myristic acid (MA), and palmitic acid (PA), whereas at 80 °C LA is followed by SA, PA, MA, SAT, and PW
Summary
Due to the rapid growth of population, improved living standard, and rapid industrialization all over the world, the energy demand in terms of conventional energy resources is rapidly increasing. Materials for Renewable and Sustainable Energy (2020) 9:24 the level of greenhouse gas emissions drive us towards the effective utilization of renewable energy sources. Among various available renewable energy sources, solar energy can be considered as a propitious option. As the low-temperature thermal energy storage include a wide range of applications, viz. Storing of thermal energy can be achieved either using sensible or latent heat storage materials. The thermal energy stored/released during the phase change process is latent heat. Thermal energy storage using phase change materials has been a major topic of research, due to its large energy density and nearly isothermal heat transfer process [6, 7]. Due to high latent heat and minimum volume change, solid–liquid PCMs are preferred. The solid–liquid PCMs can be classified into organic, inorganic, and eutectics [4, 8, 9]
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