An experimental and numerical study on the leakage of molten phase change material through a micropore under gravity. (6th April 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Xu, Xianggui; Sun, Tong; Liu, Wenwei; Wang, Junlei; Wang, Liqiong; Huang, Yun
• Is Part Of: Chemical engineering science. Volume 251(2022)
• Publication Date: 2022-04-06
• Subjects: Heat storage -- Phase change material -- Leakage -- Surface tension -- Gravity; Chemical engineering -- Periodicals; Génie chimique -- Périodiques; Chemical engineering; Periodicals; Electronic journals; 660
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ces.2022.117427
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0009-2509

Abstract

Graphical abstract: Highlights: The dynamics and mechanism of PCM leakage through micropore is analyzed. Increasing pore size increases the possibility of leakage due to increasing Bo . Leakage may occur when contact angle is large even if Bo is small and Oh is large. Palmitic acid is less likely to leak than paraffin and polyethylene glycol-1000. Abstract: This work presents an experimental and numerical study on the leakage of phase change materials through a micropore under gravity during the melting process. The effects of the pore size, wettability and physical properties of phase change materials on the packaging performance of composite phase change materials are discussed in details. The leakage process is divided into four stages, including breaking through the pore, wetting, necking and rupture. Dimensional analysis shows that the leakage process is mainly governed by the dimensionless Bond number ( Bo ) and Ohnesorge number ( Oh ). The results demonstrate that increasing the pore size significantly enhances the potential of leakage because of the increase of Bo . With a fixed Bo, the leakage can be efficiently suppressed by increasing Oh, which gives rise to a larger viscous resistance. Furthermore, it is discovered that reducing the contact angle could also prevent the leakage, as the larger surface tension is provided.