Numerical unsteady modeling for solidification of PCM containing nanomaterials with thermal effect

Abstract

Conservation and storage of energy are important issues for human beings in the 21st century. A significant part of the energy is consumed for space cooling in buildings during summer. Passive cooling systems are used due to their low-power consumption; they, however, have some limitations such as lack of sufficient low temperature for the storage of coolth, in various localities. These problems make passive cooling technologies suitable in limited regions and scenarios. In this work, the inclusions of nanomaterials were examined to accelerate the freezing of phase changing material (PCM), with the applications of fins. The base (PCM) is water and CuO nanoparticles were used in this investigation to upgrade the performance. KKL is used to estimate the properties of CuO–water nanofluids. The finite element method (FEM) was employed to simulate this unsteady process. The outcomes indicate that incorporating CuO nanoparticles into pure PCM speeds up solidification process. The total energy and average temperature profiles decrease as the number of undulations upsurges, while the solid fraction profile rises. Furthermore, for [Formula: see text][Formula: see text]nm, the uppermost rate of solidification is acquired. Increasing the concentration of CuO can make the freezing time to decrease by about 10.11% and 12.85% when the utilized shape factors are 3 and 5.7, respectively. Using particles with a higher shape factor causes the period to decrease by about 4% and 6.9% when concentration is 0.02 and 0.04, respectively.