Natural Convection in an Enclosure with Micro Encapsulated Phase Change Material: Experimental and Numerical Study

摘要

The present work is a numerical and experimental study to investigate the effect of using micro-encapsulated phase change materials (MEPCMs) on the heat transfer characteristics of a liquid in a rectangular enclosure driven by natural convection. A comparison has been made between pure water and the MEPCM slurry. While the natural convection flow of pure water is induced due to the mere change in the density of the liquid, the MEPCM slurry flow is due to the combination of the density change of the carrier fluid as well as the change in the density of the MEPCM particles during its melting and solidification. The numerical model is validated against experimental measurements over a range of operating conditions.