A Numerical Study on the Melting Behaviors of Paraffin with and without Al2O3 Nanoparticles

One of the most effective methods of thermal energy storage is the use of Phase Change Materials (PCM). Paraffin, which is among the organic PCMs, is frequently used in thermal storage applications due to its easy accessibility and high heat storage capacity. However, it significantly limits the thermal charge / discharge (melting / solidification) rate of systems caused by their low thermal conductivity. There are many methods applied to enhance the thermal conductivity of paraffin. In this research, the melting processes of pure paraffin (Rubitherm RT50) and paraffin containing 10% Al2O3 nanoparticle in a rectangular melting area were numerically investigated. For comparison, the effect of increasing the wall temperature of the rectangular area to 65 ° C, 70 ° C and 75 ° C on the total melting time was investigated for both pure paraffin (melting temperature 50 ° C) and paraffin with nanoparticle additives. In this study, in which the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) approach was used, ANSYS Fluent software was used to perform numerical analysis. Consequently it was determined that the use of Al2O3 nanoparticles improved the rate of paraffin heat transfer.