Abstract—In this Research work, phase change materials are used to store heat energy, which can be utilized for Cold start in automobiles. Various PCMs like Paraffin wax, sodium acetate tri-hydrate and phenolphthalein are considered which are used to absorb heat from the coolant water from the engine. The conduction and convection criterion of heat transfer enable the PCM to store this heat as latent heat. The temperature change and thereby heat absorbed by the PCM is first studied experimentally. Then the amount of convection and temperature change brought about due to the heat flux has been simulated and studied in detail using GAMBIT and FLUENT. The experimental results and the simulation results have been compared and found to be similar. This has enabled us to identify the better PCM relative to the other PCMs which were studied.
Index Terms—Latent heat storage capacity, phase changematerials, paraffin wax, sodium acetate tri-hydrate,phenolphthalein.
The authors are with the Department of Mechanical Engineering,Thiagarajar College of Engineering, Madurai, India (e-mail:amritomnayak@gmail.com; ramtcemech09@gmail.com; manojvikithan@gmail.com; vinod.einstein@gmail.com).
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Cite: Amrit Om Nayak, G. Ramkumar, T.Manoj, and R.Vinod, "Comparative Study between Experimental Analysis and CFD Software Analysis of PCM material in Thermal Energy Storage System," International Journal of Chemical Engineering and Applications vol. 2, no. 6, pp. 400-407, 2011.
