An experimental assessment of bio-mixed-phase change material in a lightweight compartment and its potential as latent energy storage in north-east climate of India

ABSTRACT

The temperature fluctuations in a room directly influence the heating and cooling load of buildings and their energy consumption rate. To manage thermal loading, the use of passive technologies is in a recent trend with the application of Phase-changing materials (PCM). The major problem of material availability in a developing country is solved with the mixing of two easily available phase change materials. Paraffin is better in latent storage and palm oil with the low melting application is combined in definite proportion. In this experimental work, Paraffin-based Palm oil (70$:$30) mixed Bio PCM is studied incorporating in a two small-scaled compartment. The first compartment is a reference room with insulation and the other with addition to a 20 mm PCM layer. The temperature fluctuation is studied with two cases of the orientation of the window. It is found that the average reduction in temperature fluctuation is found to be in the range of 1–2 C and maximum peak temperature reduction of 3 C and minimum peak temperature gain of 2 C is achieved, also heat transfer reduction through the walls is 40$-$46% with PCM incorporation which is comparable to most recent works on different phase change materials and satisfies the energy storage potential of Bio PCM.

KEYWORDS:

• Energy storage for building
• phase changing materials
• green building
• thermal passive technologies
• heat transfer
• sustainability

Nomenclature

U Overall thermal coefficient of wall(W/m2 C)	=	hi Convective heat transfer coefficient of inside air(W/m2 C)
A Total surface area of wall, m2	=	K1, K2, K3 Thermal conductivity of individual materials (W/m2 C
To Ambient temperature(C)	=	L1, L2, L3 Respective thickness of wall layers(m)
Ti Indoor temperature of compartment(°C)	=	ho Convective heat transfer coefficient for outside(W/m2 C)
ABBREVIATIONS	=
Reference Room: Walls without phase change material	=
HTR: Heat transfer rate	=
PCM: Phase change material	=

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Shubham Kumar Jaiswal

Shubham Kumar Jaiswal has received Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech.) in Mechanical Engineering from Greater Noida Institute of Technology(UP) India, in the year 2017. He also received his Master of Technology in Energy Technology & Management from Madan Mohan Malviya University of Technology (MMMUT), Gorakhpur (U.P), in the year 2020.

Devesh Kumar

Devesh Kumarhas received the Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech.) from Harcourt Butler Technological Institute (HBTI) Kanpur (UP), in the year 1999,  Master of Technology from Indian Institute of Technology Delhi(IIT Delhi),India in the year 2005 and Ph.D. from Department of Mechanical Engineering, Delhi Technological University (DTU) Delhi, India. Presently, he is working as Assistant Professor in Department of Mechanical Engineering, Madan Mohan Malaviya University of Technology (MMMUT) Gorakhpur (UP).