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Experimental study of enhanced heat transfer by addition of CuO nanoparticle

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Abstract

An energy storage system has been designed to study the thermal characteristics of paraffin wax with an embedded nano size copper oxide (CuO) particle. This paper presents studies conducted on phase transition times, heat fraction as well as heat transfer characteristics of paraffin wax as phase change material (PCM) embedded with CuO nanoparticles. 40 nm mean size CuO particles of 2, 5 and 10% by weight were dispersed in PCM for this study. Experiments were performed on a heat exchanger with 1.5–10 l/min of heat transfer fluid (HTF) flow. Time-based variations of the temperature distributions are revealed from the results of observations of melting and solidification curves. The results strongly suggested that the thermal conductivity enhances 6, 6.7 and 7.8% in liquid state and in dynamic viscosity it enhances by 5, 14 and 30% with increasing mass fraction of the CNEPs. The thermal conductivity ratio of the composites can be augmented by a factor up to 1.3. The heat transfer coefficient during solidification increased about 78% for the maximum flow rate. The analysis of experimental results reveals that the addition of copper oxide nanoparticles to the paraffin wax enhances both the conduction and natural convection very effectively in composites and in paraffin wax. The paraffin wax-based composites have great potential for energy storage applications like industrial waste heat recovery, solar thermal applications and solar based dynamic space power generation with optimal fraction of copper oxide nanoparticles.

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Abbreviations

A :

Cross-sectional area of annulus (m2)

C :

Specific heat of PCM/water (kJ/kg°C)

CNEP:

Copper oxide nanoparticle enhanced phase change material

CNTs:

Carbon nanotubes

d :

Diameter of heat transfer fluid pipe (HTFP) (m)

Gr :

Grashof number, \( \frac{{g\beta \Updelta T\Updelta r_{{m}^{3}} }}{{\nu^{2} }} \) (–)

HTF:

Heat transfer fluid

H :

Latent heat of phase change material (PCM) (kJ/kg)

h :

Heat transfer coefficient (W/m2°C)

k p :

Thermal conductivity of particle material (W/m K)

k s :

Thermal conductivity of phase change material (W/m K)

k :

Thermal conductivity of composite (W/m K)

l :

Length of heat exchanger (m)

m :

Flow rate of heat transfer fluid (HTF) (kg/s)

M :

Mass of PCM (kg)

Nu :

Nusselt number (–)

Pe :

Peclet number, \( \frac{{u \times d_{p} }}{\alpha } \) (–)

Pr :

Prandtl number, \( \frac{{\mu C_{p} }}{k} \) (–)

Q :

Heat value of the PCM during charging or discharging period at any time (kJ)

Q T :

Total heat value of the PCM during charging or discharging period (kJ)

Q + :

Heat fraction

Ra :

Rayleigh number, (Gr * Pr) (–)

T :

Temperature (°C)

u :

Average velocity of cooling water inside the annulus (m/s)

α :

Thermal diffusivity (m2/s)

μ:

Viscosity (kg/m s)

μ s :

Suspension viscosity (kg/m s)

μ f :

Viscosity of base fluid (kg/m s)

ε:

Mass fraction of the CNEPs in the composite

χ:

Wetted perimeter (m)

ν f :

Kinematic viscosity of cooling water (m2/s)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli, 620015, India

    Stella Jesumathy, M. Udayakumar & S. Suresh

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  1. Stella Jesumathy
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  2. M. Udayakumar
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  3. S. Suresh
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Correspondence to Stella Jesumathy.

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Jesumathy, S., Udayakumar, M. & Suresh, S. Experimental study of enhanced heat transfer by addition of CuO nanoparticle. Heat Mass Transfer 48, 965–978 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00231-011-0945-y

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