Simulation of charging of PCM within a duct containing nanoparticles

With the involvement of sinusoidal containers of phase change material (PCM) inside the duct, new configuration for the ventilation system has been achieved in the current paper. Mixture of TiO₂ and RT25 was assumed as PCM, and the temperature of domain is fixed at 25°C at the start of the process. Owing to the radiation of the sun, air becomes warmer up to 35°C and with entering the air into the domain with Re = 6000, the melting process starts. The cold air at the outlet section can be utilized for ventilating the room. Homogeneous model for NEPCM and K-ɛ approach for turbulent air flow has been incorporated. ANSYS FLUENT was applied for simulating this unsteady mechanism, and verification of the model was done according to previous experimental work. To control the air gap among tanks, the factor “b” was utilized and the influence of the fraction of titanium oxide (ϕ) was analyzed in results. As nano-sized material has been added, more heat can be received to RT25 and the completed process can be reached in lower time. With considering the highest “b,” as nano-sized material, the required time reduces from 20,672 to 19705 s. When ϕ = 0, growth of b leads to a reduction of time of about 42.57%.