Abstract
An experimental investigation was conducted on the laminar flow frictional characteristics of suspensions with microencapsulated phase change material (MEPCM) in water flowing through rectangular copper minichannels. The MEPCM was provided at an average particle size of 4.97 μm, and was mixed with distilled water to form suspensions with various mass concentrations ranging from 0 to 20%. The experiment was performed to explore the effect of MEPCM mass concentration on friction factor and pressure drop in the minichannels. The Reynolds number ranged from 200 to 2000 to provide laminar and transitional flows. It was found that the experimental data for the suspensions with 0 and 5% concentration agree well with the existing theoretical data for an incompressible, fully developed, laminar Newtonian flow. For the suspensions with mass concentrations higher than 10%, there is an obvious increase in friction factor and pressure drop in comparison with laminar Newtonian flow.
References
Hawlader M, Uddin M S, Khin M M. Microencapsulated PCM thermal-energy storage system. Applied Energy, 2003, 74: 195–202
Cho J, Kwon A, Cho C. Microencapsulation of octadecane as a phase-change material by interfacial polymerization in an emulsion system. Coll Polym Sci, 2002, 280: 260–266
Kasza K E, Chen M M. Improvement of the performance of solar energy or waste heat utilization systems by using phase-change slurry as an enhanced heat-transfer storage fluid. J Solar Energy Eng, 1985, 107: 229–236
Yamagishi Y, Sugeno T, Ishige T, et al. An evaluation of microencapsulated PCM for use in cold energy transportation medium. IEEE Paper, No 96082
Goel M, Roy S K, Sengupta S. Laminar forced convection heat transfer in microcapsulated phase change material suspensions. Int J Heat Mass Transfer, 1994, 37(4): 593–604
Inaba H, Kim M J, Horibe A. Melting heat transfer characteristics of microencapsulated phase change material slurries with plural microcapsules having different diameters. J Heat Transfer, 2004, 126: 558–565
Choi E, Cho Y I, Lorsch H G. Forced convection heat transfer with phase-change-material slurries: Turbulent flow in a circular tube. Int J Heat Mass Transfer, 1994, 37(2): 207–215
Choi M, Cho K. Liquid cooling for a multichip module using Fluorinert liquid and paraffin slurry. Int J Heat Mass Transfer, 2000, 43: 209–218
Choi M, Cho K. Effect of the aspect ratio of rectangular channels on the heat transfer and hydrodynamics of paraffin slurry flow. Int J Heat Mass Transfer, 2001, 44: 55–61
Mudawar I. Assessment of high-heat-flux thermal management scheme. IEEE Transactions on Components and Packaging Technologies, 2001, 24: 122–141
Peng X F, Peterson G P. Convective heat transferand flow friction for water flow in microchannel structures. Int J Heat Mass Transfer, 1996, 39: 2599–2608
Wu H Y, Cheng P. Friction factors in smooth trapezoidal silicon microchannels with different aspect ratios. Int J Heat Mass Transfer, 2003, 46: 2519–2525
Vand V. Theory of viscosity of concentrated suspensions. Nature, 1945, 155: 364–365
VDI — Gesellschaft Verfahrenstechnik und Chemieingenieurwesen, VDI — Wärmeatlas 8. Auflage 1997, Lc1-9, Springer
Hartnett J P, Kostic M. Heat transfer to Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids in rectangular ducts. In: (Hartnett J P, Irvine T F, eds.) Advances in Heat Transfer. New York: Academic Press, 1989, 19
Shah R K, London A L. Laminar flow forced convection in ducts. Advances in Heat Transfer. London: Academic Press, 1978
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Rao, Y., Dammel, F., Stephan, P. et al. Flow frictional characteristics of microencapsulated phase change material suspensions flowing through rectangular minichannels. SCI CHINA SER E 49, 445–456 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11431-006-0445-3
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11431-006-0445-3