Open Access

ARTICLE

THERMAL PERFORMANCE ENHANCEMENT OF PARAFFIN WAX WITH AL₂O₃ AND CuO NANOPARTICLES – A NUMERICAL STUDY

A. Valan Arasu^a,*, Agus P. Sasmito^b,†, Arun S. Mujumdar^b

a Department of Mechanical Engineering, Thiagarajar College of Engineering, Madurai-625015, Tamilnadu, India
b Department of Mechanical Engineering, National University of Singapore, 10 Kent Ridge Crescent, Singapore 119260, Singapore
* Corresponding author, Email: a_valanarasu@yahoo.com
† Currently associated with Minerals Metals Materials Technology Centre (M3TC), National University of Singapore. Email: ap.sasmito@gmail.com

Frontiers in Heat and Mass Transfer 2011, 2(4), 1-7. https://doi.org/10.5098/hmt.v2.4.3005

Abstract

The heat transfer enhancement of paraffin wax, a cheap and widely used latent heat thermal energy storage material, using nanoparticles is investigated. The effects of nanoparticle volume fraction on both the melting and solidification rates of paraffin wax are analysed and compared for Al₂O₃ and CuO nanoparticles. Present results show that dispersing nanoparticles in smaller volumetric fractions increase the heat transfer rate. The enhancement in thermal performance of paraffin wax is greater for Al₂O₃ compared with that for CuO nanoparticles.

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Keywords

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