Some Heat Transfer Data for a Mannitol Derived Phase Change Material

Abstract

Heat transfer data for a commercial mannitol derivative, the Plus ICE A164, were obtained in a setup containing a heat exchanger with a single layer of three vertically placed pipes filled with the phase change material (PCM). This PCM has a fusion temperature about 168 ºC. The experimental procedure used an operating cycle composed by a heating and a cooling process, and the PCM temperature time evolution was measured. From these temperature results, the overall heat transfer coefficient, from the heat transfer fluid, a thermal oil, towards the PCM, was of 350 W/(m 2 K), while the average value for the PCM heat transfer coefficient was of 415 W/(m 2 K).

Comparative Heat Transfer Data for Solid-Liquid Phase Change of D-Mannitol and Adipic Acid

“…For D-mannitol the average value of the overall heat transfer obtained was 285 W/(m 2 K), for the heat transfer coefficient in the phase change material the obtained value was 340 W/(m 2 K) and for the heat transfer coefficient on the thermofluid side it was 24,507 W/(m 2 K). These values compare well with the equivalent values obtained by Rocha et al [17], for the same PCM.…”

“…The thermofluid temperature dropped from 190˚C to 20˚C and extracted heat from the PCM. Information on the thermofluid temperature evolution can be found elsewhere [14] [15] [16] [17].…”

“…In Figures 7-9, the red line indicated by the reference T12 represents the time evolution of the PCM temperature measured with the thermocouple T12, as indicated in Figure 3. Information on the time evolution of the thermofluid temperature, at the entrance of the test heat exchanger, during the experiments, can be found elsewhere [17].…”

“…The present study concerns the determination of heat transfer coefficients for the design of a concentrated solar energy plant requiring a PCM thermal energy storage. It is part of a wider set of experiments, where several PCMs were tested in order to obtain heat transfer values [14] [15] [16] [17].…”