New challenge in advanced thermal energy transportation using functionally thermal fluids

The present review article presents the current status of some researches on thermal energy transportation using functionally thermal fluid, which is a mixture of heat transfer medium like water and other material with or without phase change like a paraffin wax as a latent heat storage material. This functionally thermal fluid offers attractive opportunities for thermal energy transportation and hear transfer enhancement of heat exchanger. This article describes classification and characteristics of functionally thermal fluids and their application. Referring to functionally thermal fluid for the usage of sensible heat, some viscoelastic fluids for flow drag reduction in a thermal energy transport system such as aqueous polymer solution and surfactant solution are mentioned. On the other hand, this article describes heat transfer and hydrodynamic characteristics of some phase change slurries like ice slurry, phase change microemulsion slurry, phase change microencapsule slurry, clathrate slurry and shape-stabilized paraffin and polyethylene pellets as functionally thermal fluids using latent heat between solid and liquid phases. Finally, it leads to the conclusion that some functionally thermal fluids are very useful for the advanced thermal energy transportation and heat exchanger systems. (C) 2000 Editions scientifiques et medicates Elsevier SAS.