Heat transfer improvement of macro encapsulation box of organic phase change material under hot wall environment

Abstract:

A simulated hot wall condition was provided by a thermostat oven in lab and the exothermic and endothermic process of organic phase change material macro encapsulation box was measured when different quantity of conductive fins was installed or the box was filled with copper foam. The results show that the increasing quantity of fins leads to the reduction of complete phase transformation time, while the installation of excessive fins can decrease the effective heat release time for the package box with small thickness. The usage of copper foam results in the more uniform temperature distribution, and further reduces the complete phase transformation time in thick encapsulation box. The complete phase transformation time in a 45 mm thick encapsulation box is decreased by 64.8% when both the installation of 15 conductive fins and the copper foam filling are applied. The application of these two methods provides a good solution for the slow endothermic process of macro encapsulation box containing huge volume of organic phase change material under hot wall environment.