Experimental assessment of heat storage properties and heat transfer characteristics of a phase change material slurry for air conditioning applications

A new microencapsulated phase change material slurry based on microencapsulated Rubitherm RT6 at high concentration (45% w/w) was tested. Some heat storage properties and heat transfer characteristics have been experimentally investigated in order to assess its suitability for the integration into a low temperature heat storage system for solar air conditioning applications. DSC tests were conducted to evaluate the cold storage capacity and phase change temperature range. A phase change interval of approximately 3 °C and a hysteresis behaviour of the enthalpy were identified. An experimental set-up was built in order to quantify the natural convection heat transfer occurring from a vertical helically coiled tube immersed in the phase change material slurry. First, tests were carried out using water in order to obtain natural convection heat transfer correlations. Then a comparison was conducted with the results obtained for the phase change material slurry. It was found that the values of the heat transfer coefficient for the phase change material slurry were higher than for water, under identical temperature conditions inside the phase change interval.