Focusing of phase change microparticles for local heat transfer enhancement in laminar flows

Phase change material (PCM) suspensions have received wide spread attention for increased thermal storage in various thermal systems such as heat sinks for electronics and solar thermal applications. To achieve further heat transfer enhancement, this paper investigates the effect of focusing micron-sized phase-change particles (PCMs) to a layer near the heated wall of a parallel plate channel. A numerical model for fully-developed laminar flow with a constant heat flux applied to one wall is developed. Melting of the focused PCMs is incorporated using a temperature-dependent effective heat capacity. The effect of channel height, height of the focused PCM stream, heat flux, and fluid properties on the peak local Nusselt number (Nu∗) and the averaged Nusselt number over the melting length (Numelt) are investigated. Compared to the thermally-developed Nusselt number for this geometry (Nuo = 5.385), Numelt and Nu∗ enhancements of 8% and 19% were determined, respectively. The local heat transfer performance is optimized when the PCMs are confined to within 30% of the channel height. The present work provides an extended understanding of local heat transfer characteristics during melting of flowing PCM suspensions, and offers a new method for enhancing heat transfer performance in various thermal-fluidic systems.