Thermophysical Property Modeling of LA/MF Encapsulated Phase Change Material Slurry as a Heat Transfer Fluid

This study aimed to obtain a heat transfer fluid (HTF) using water as the carrier fluid by encapsulating a phase change material (PCM) and to perform hydrothermal characterization of the aqueous solution containing encapsulated PCM (ePCM) in different volume ratios (ePCM-S) as a heat transfer fluid (HTF). Lauric acid (LA) was used as the core PCM in this study due to its melting temperature falling within the nominal operating cell temperature range. LA, encapsulated with a melamine formaldehyde (MF) shell via the in-situ polymerization method, was incorporated into the carrier fluid (water) at volume concentrations of 1%, 1.5%, and 2%. With 1% MF/LA ePCM-S, the specific heat capacity of the HTF in the melting range at 318 K could be improved by 7.58% at the expense of a marginal 2.9% increase in viscosity. It has been demonstrated that ePCMs improve the thermal properties of CF and that ePCM-S can be used as an enhanced HTF when the inlet and outlet temperature range matches or falls within the melting range of the PCM.