The present work aims at investigating a new challenging use of aluminium oxide (Al2O3) nanoparticles and Carbon black (CB) nano-aggregates to enhance the thermal properties of pure paraffin waxes to obtain a new class of PCMs, the so-called nano-PCMs. The nano-PCMs were obtained by seeding suitable amounts of Al2O3 nanoparticles and CB nano-aggregates in a paraffin wax with a melting temperatures of 70 °C to obtain 1%wt dispersions. The thermophysical properties such as specific heat, latent heat, and thermal conductivity were measured to understand the effects of the nanoparticles on the thermal properties of both the solid and liquid PCMs and then compared with the ones obtained for the pure paraffin wax. Finally, a numerical comparison between the use of pure paraffin wax and the nano-PCMs obtained in a typical hybrid water TES was developed and implemented. The modelled hybrid TES is a typical 70 L water tank, where a certain number of pipes filled up with PCMs are located to improve its heat storage capabilities. The results are presented in terms of loading and unloading time, and total amount of energy stored.
Nano-PCMs for enhanced Thermal Energy Storage applications
Laura Fedele;Sergio Bobbo;
2016
Abstract
The present work aims at investigating a new challenging use of aluminium oxide (Al2O3) nanoparticles and Carbon black (CB) nano-aggregates to enhance the thermal properties of pure paraffin waxes to obtain a new class of PCMs, the so-called nano-PCMs. The nano-PCMs were obtained by seeding suitable amounts of Al2O3 nanoparticles and CB nano-aggregates in a paraffin wax with a melting temperatures of 70 °C to obtain 1%wt dispersions. The thermophysical properties such as specific heat, latent heat, and thermal conductivity were measured to understand the effects of the nanoparticles on the thermal properties of both the solid and liquid PCMs and then compared with the ones obtained for the pure paraffin wax. Finally, a numerical comparison between the use of pure paraffin wax and the nano-PCMs obtained in a typical hybrid water TES was developed and implemented. The modelled hybrid TES is a typical 70 L water tank, where a certain number of pipes filled up with PCMs are located to improve its heat storage capabilities. The results are presented in terms of loading and unloading time, and total amount of energy stored.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
