Preparation and Numerical Simulation of Heat Transfer Performance for Methyl Palmitate Methyl Stearate Binary Eutectic Mixture/Expanded Graphite Composite Phase Change Material
The binary eutectic mixtures of fatty acid esters are promising phase change materials for energy storage application. However, the low thermal conductivity which is a common problem for organic phase change materials restricts their further and better applications. In order to solve the problem, a novel composite phase change material (CPCM) was prepared in this research by using methyl palmitate methyl stearate (MP MS) a typical binary eutectic mixture of fatty acid esters, as phase change material and expanded graphite (EG) as heat transfer enhancer. The heat transfer performance of MP MS/EG CPCM was numerical simulated by finite element analysis software ABAQUS. Numerical simulation results revealed that EG could notably enhance the heat transfer performance of MP MS eutectic mixture. The heat transfer rate and phase change reaction rate of MP MS/EG CPCM were 14 times and 3 times that of MP MS eutectic mixture, respectively.