Eventos Anais de eventos
COBEM 2023
27th International Congress of Mechanical Engineering
INFLUENCE OF METAL FOAM ON THE bioPCM MELTING PERFORMANCE
Submission Author:
Fábio Becker , RS , Brazil
Co-Authors:
Fábio Becker, Jacqueline Copetti, Elaine Maria Cardoso, Mirella Callage da Silva
Presenter: Fábio Becker
doi://10.26678/ABCM.COBEM2023.COB2023-0740
Abstract
Due to the constant climate changes seen in recent decades and the constant increase in CO2 emissions, an energy transition must occur through clean energy sources. However, most of these sources are seasonal, which makes it important to store them for later use. Latent thermal energy storage is the most attractive alternative because a large quantity of thermal energy is stored in a small volume. These materials are known as Phase Change Materials (PCMs), and bio-based PCMs can combine high-energy storage with less environmental impact. PCMs have low thermal conductivity, which may restrict their use in some applications. For this reason, it is necessary to use some method to intensify the heat transfer, in which metallic foam is an alternative due to its high surface area. This work aims to experimentally analyze the melting process of palm wax as bioPCM, encapsulated in a rectangular structure, and the influence of inserting a Nickel foam in the thermal process. Different heat fluxes are imposed on the system, which has a constant PCM mass for the different configurations, with and without metallic foam. The results indicate a reduction in total melting time with an increase in the heating temperature. There is an improvement in heat transfer for the configuration of bioPCM with metallic foam, with a more significant reduction in the total melting time compared to the bioPCM configuration without metallic foam. Furthermore, with metallic foam, increased heat conduction, natural convection reduction, and greater temperature field homogeneity were observed.
Keywords
Phase Change Material (PCM), bioPCM, metal foam, Melting Process
