Heat Transportation Container Using Phase Change Material to Recover Unused Thermal Energy
This paper describes 1) the thermal and flow behaviors of Phase Change Material (PCM) and heat transfer oil (HTO) in a Heat Transportation(HT) container using direct contact heat exchanger and 2) effects of flow rate of HTO and inlet angle of nozzle of inflowing HTO on the heat exchange rate. In the experiments, a two-dimensional sliced model of HT container was used for directly observing the solidification and melting of PCM. In the heat storage experiments, we observed many HTO channels within the solid PCM, causing a large heat storage rate, and especially the 60° inclined inlet nozzle had approximately 30 minutes shorter in melting time than the downward inlet. In the heat release experiments, three types of solidification were observed; 1) formation and growth of solidified PCM masses in the inlet pipes, 2) sinking of solidified PCM particles and 3) foaming oil covered with solidified PCM film. Moreover, in the initial one hour the heat release rate increased with inclining inlet nozzle against the downward one. However, after that the inclined angle of inlet nozzle did not give any affect on heat release rate, because the inlet pipes was frozen due to high thermal conductivity of pipes, thereby the oil flowed only in the central part disproportionately. In the both experiments, high flow rate of HTO caused high heat exchange rate. These results will make easy to design a HT container, thus leading to maximize heat exchange rate of it.
