Heat transfer and flow characteristics of phase change material slurry flow in microchannels with constant heat flux at the base were investigated. The phase change process was included in the energy equation using the effective specific heat method. A parametric study was conducted numerically by varying the base fluid type, particle concentration, particle size, channel dimensions, inlet temperature, base heat flux and melting range of PCM. The particle distribution inside the microchannels was simulated using the diffusive flux model and its effect on the overall thermal performance of microchannels was investigated. Experimental investigation was conducted in microchannels of 101 [micro]m width and 533 [micro]m height with water as base fluid and n-Octadecane as PCM to validate the key conclusions of the numerical model. Since the flow is not fully developed in case of microchannels (specifically manifold microchannels, which are the key focus of the present study), thermal performance is not as obtained in conventional channels where the length of the channel is large (compared to length of microchannels). It was found that the thermal conductivity of the base fluid plays an important role in determining the thermal performance of slurry. The effect of particle distribution can be neglected in the numerical model under some cases. The performance of slurry depends on the heat flux, purity of PCM, inlet temperature of the fluid, and base fluid thermal conductivity. Hence, there is an application dependent optimum condition of these parameters that is required to obtain the maximum thermal performance of PCM slurry flows in microchannels.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ucf.edu/oai:stars.library.ucf.edu:etd-4934 |
| Date | 01 January 2009 |
| Creators | Kuravi, Sarada |
| Publisher | STARS |
| Source Sets | University of Central Florida |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Electronic Theses and Dissertations |
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