Thermophysical improvement of PCM with inclusion of nanoparticles during solidification

Abstract

Demonstration of heat release phenomenon by employing the numerical approach is the main purpose of current research. Water as PCM was combined by particles and homogeneous mixture was assumed. Various shapes of powder with different concentrations were employed. The unsteady energy equation involving nanomaterial properties and freezing source term has been analyzed and for finding the solution, the Galerkin technique was employed. The adaptive grid generates greater number of elements in solid front region. Implicit formulations for unsteady terms were implemented and automatic time step was employed in software. Solid front changes with alteration of shapes of nanopowder and its fraction. With fraction augmentation, freezing finishes in lower time. The needed time diminishes by about 10.29% and 13.78%, respectively. Changing the shape of particles to the biggest level makes the period decline by less than 4.8% and 8.4%. A greater fraction of nanomaterial leads to a higher effect on the shape of nanomaterial.