Experimental Investigation and Numerical Simulation of Carboxylic (COOH) Group Functionalized Graphene-Based Paraffin Wax as Phase Change Material in a Thermal Energy Storage System

Abstract

This study analyses the melting time and liquid fraction during melting  of carboxylic (COOH) group functionalized Graphene-based paraffin wax (PW) Phase Change Material (PCM) inside a thermal energy storage system (TESS) both experimentally and numerically (using Ansys Workbench 15.0 academic version). Its performance in terms of time taken for melting during charging/melting analysis is compared numerically and experimentally which leads to a good conformance and validates this research. The average error in the melting times of experimental and numerical result is found to be 1.9 %, 2.0 % and 2.6 % for three different flowrates which shows a very good agreement between experimental and numerical simulation results.