Abstract
Heat transfer between encapsulated PCM panels and air plays an important role in PCM-Air heat exchangers. A new design for the encapsulation panel was developed considering practical aspects such as the cost of production and ease of manufacturing, in addition to heat transfer and pressure drop. A number of encapsulated panel surfaces were first investigated via 3D CFD simulations and compared with an existing panel in use by a commercial PCM-Air heat exchanger manufacturer. After validation, 2D CFD simulations were carried out for 32 different geometries to select the most effective design, which was fabricated and tested in the laboratory. Laboratory parameters tested included heat transfer, pressure drop and melting/solidifying. The laboratory results confirmed the improvements of the new panel in comparison with the existing panel and a flat panel. It was found that the proposed design doubled the heat transfer, holds 13.7% more material and the fan can overcome the increased pressure drop.
Highlights
Phase Change Materials in PCM-Air heat exchangers are commonly encapsulated in panels and stacked into a channel; this is usually termed as a thermal battery (TB)
This paper focuses on the development, fabrication and validation of a new panel design considering five key performance indicators (KPIs) (a) heat transfer, (b) pressure drop, (c) rigidity, (d) cost of production and (e) ease of manufacturing
Shape 9 is the panel with simplest design and capable of increasing the Nusselt number three times, with a pressure drop five times higher compared to the existing panel (Figure 8)
Summary
Ventilation systems with PCM-Air heat exchangers can offer cooling with a low energy consumption as only a fan is used. They use the principle of thermal storage through latent heat to cool a space in climatic regions where the ambient air temperature is not low enough to cool the space during the day but cool enough to charge the PCM during the night. Available panels are for general purposes and not designed for ventilation heat exchangers As a consequence, they have low heat transfer efficiency. PCMs have low thermal conductivity; improvements in the heat transfer between air and panel will increase the overall performance of the system and lead to a fast thermal response, fast charging period and a reduction in energy consumption
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