- Phase change materials (PCM) are the unique possibility to store thermal energy and released on demand via the heat exchangers. Harvesting and storage thermal energy either from primary sources ( such as sun) or secondary where are lost large amount of “heat” is a challenge for researchers and engineers.
- Two fundamental characteristics define a PCM : latent heat responsible for the thermal energy storage and thermal conductivity responsible for the heat transport. There is no ideal PCM with high latent heat simultaneous with high thermal conductivity. Therefore, only composite materials can be devised and engineered for a specific range of applications.
- Our researches focused on polyalkanes ( paraffins) with micro/nanoparticles ( metals, oxides, graphens, nanowires) and their behavior during heating-cooling cycle.
- In such way an appropriate test rig has been designed to study Stefan’s problem, heat transfer and storage for nanocomposites paraffin-nanoparticles
- PhD student, Farqad Rasheed ( Republic of Iraq) designed in our Prototype Lab a test rig that simulate a insulated semi-infinite slab at constant heat flow. A number of thermocouples record PCM behavior
Ongoing Project: STAR 134-2017-Thermal buffer based on intelligent phase change materials, ruled by Dr Adriana Balan
Farqad’s work: COMPOSITES BASED ON NANO-MATERIALS FOR APPLICATIONS IN THERMAL ENERGY STORAGE expected to be defended in summer 2018