Enhancement of Heat Transfer in PEG 1000 Using Nano-Phase Change Material for Thermal Energy Storage

Heat transfer rates during the solidification and melting processes are decreased because to the PCMs lower thermal conductivity. The influence of nano-SiO2 and nano-Al2O3 additions on the thermophysical characteristics of pure PCM is investigated in this study. Nanoparticles such as SiO2 and Al2O3 are used as an additive in PCM with a mass fraction of 2, 5, 10, 15, 20 wt.%. A comparative study on thermal conductivity of NPCM is performed theoretically and experimentally, where Maxwell Eucken model and EMT model was found excellent agreement between the theoretical and experimental data of SiO2 NPCM and Al2O3 NPCM, respectively. It is found that the loading of nano-SiO2 and nano-Al2O3 with PCM, the thermal conductivity of NPCM had increased by 69% and 111% for the mass fraction of 20 wt.%, respectively, and the melting process of NPCM is accelerated with the increase in the mass concentration of nanoparticles. The shortest peak melting temperature realized using 15 wt.% mass fraction of SiO2 NPCM and at 20 wt.% mass fraction of Al2O3 NPCM, which was 4.05% and 5.13% shorter than pure PCM, respectively. It is also noticed that there is 6.7 and 6.2% reduction in latent heat storage at 20 wt.% mass concentration of SiO2 NPCM and Al2O3 NPCM, respectively, when compared with pure PCM. The high thermal conductivity and superior performance of NPCM make them optimum.