Investigation of the Effect of Different Parameters of Phase Change Materials on Heat Exchanger Performance

Abstract

Technological improvements and increasing energy demand necessitate energy efficient designs for heat transfer systems. The storage and reuse of heat energy plays an important role in the development of energy-efficient systems. Phase change materials (PCMs) are crucial components which increase energy efficiency in heat exchangers as can be applied to many systems. In this study, the heat transfer performance of different types of phase change materials in a regenerative heat exchanger was investigated according to different parameters. Reynolds number depending on the hot fluid velocity (Re=400, 800, 1200, 1600), hot fluid inlet temperature (Tsıcak,giriş=40, 60, 70, 80℃), and different types of phase change materials (RT60, RT100, and SP70) are the parameters used in this study. ANSYS Fluent software was used for computational fluid dynamics analysis. As a result, it has been determined that when the Reynolds number of the hot fluid in the heat exchanger was increased in the range of Re=400-1600, the heat transfer effectiveness increase of 17%; when the hot fluid inlet temperature was increased in the range of Thot,inlet=40-80℃, the heat transfer effectiveness increase of 21%. As regards the effect of different types of phase change materials, the heat transfer effectiveness was 81% for RT60, 79% for SP70 and 76% for RT100. It has been evaluated that, with the results obtained from this study, heat exchangers with higher heat transfer effectiveness and higher energy storage capacity can be designed.