Investigation of Nanomaterials and Porous Composites Filled Encapsulated Enclosures for Renewable and Sustainable Engineering Applications

Abstract

Thermal energy storage (TES) system is a promising solution to reduce the fossil fuels consumption which reduces the emission of CO2 that causes the global warming. In this thesis, engineered nano-materials (ENMs), in the form of nanofluids (e.g., TiO2 nanoparticles dispersed in water) and nanoparticle enhanced phase change materials or commonly known as nano-PCM (e.g., CuO nanoparticles dispersed in Rubitherm R-18), are investigated as potential storage mediums for encapsulated (e.g., spherical, conical, and pear-shaped enclosures) and composite (e.g., metal mesh porous medium incorporated into a cylindrical container) thermal energy storage (TES) systems. Use of nanofluid and porous mesh in TES exhibits enhanced heat transfer rate due to the improved effective thermal conductivity. Nano-PCM shows improved melting rate, while a slight reduction in the total energy storage is observed. Unconstrained melting process inside encapsulated system exhibits faster melting than the constrained melting cases. The knowledge obtained in this research will be very beneficial to design compact TES systems with improved effectiveness.