Transient thermal energy storage in partitioned enclosures packed with microencapsulated phase change materials

In this work, transient characteristics of thermal energy storage in partitioned enclosures filled with microencapsulated phase change material (MEPCM) particles were examined experimentally and numerically. The enclosure is partitioned with aspect ratio λ and packed with different MEPCMs with melting temperatures about TM = 28 °C and 37 °C. The top and bottom surfaces of the partitioned enclosure are, respectively, maintained at hot and cold temperatures, while the other surfaces are kept thermally insulated. The results showed that at the initial transient, the net energy storage in partitioned enclosure, Qnet, increases with the time. Finally, the Qnet approaches quickly the steady state. Additionally, higher dimensionless accumulated energy through the hot wall Qh and cold wall Qc are found for a case with higher hot wall temperature Th. that the faster melting is experienced for the system with higher Stefan number and the subcooling number is the main parameter to dominate the thermal latent heat storage of the MEPCM system. In addition, better net energy storage is noted for a partitioned enclosure with a smaller aspect ratio.