Experimental study on heat transfer characteristics of microencapsulated phase change materials (MPCMs): effects of phase-change temperature variations

This study investigated the heat transfer performance of two microcapsule phase change materials (MPCMs) with different phase-change temperatures and their mixed composite phase range temperature microcapsule phase change material slurry, the influences of microcapsule phase change material slurries with different phase-change temperatures ranges and working conditions (involving inlet velocity and suspension concentration) were numerically investigated. The result showed that compared with the pure base fluid, MPCMS generally increased the average Nu by more than 20% under the tested conditions and reduced the average measured bottom-substrate temperature by 8–17 K. Compared to slurry with a lower phase-change temperature range, slurry with a higher phase-change temperature range reduced the peak bottom-substrate temperature by 18–24 K. Under the same conditions, although the heat absorption of mixed MPCMS was not as good as that of MPCMSs with a single phase-change temperature, compared to MPCMSs with a single phase-change temperature, mixed MPCMS's peak bottom-substrate temperature was reduced by up to 7 K.