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Reliable knowledge of phase change materials (PCM) thermo-physical properties is essential to model and design latent thermal energy storage (LTES) systems. This study aims to conduct a methodological measurement of thermo-physical properties, including latent enthalpy, isobaric specific heat, thermal conductivity and dynamic viscosity, of two n-alkanes, n-octadecane and n-eicosane. The enthalpy and isobaric specific heat of the materials are measured via differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) technique, using a pDSC evo7 from Setaram Instrumentation with a sample mass of 628.4 mg. The influence of the scanning rates, varying from 0.5 K/min to 0.025 K/min, in dynamic continuous mode within temperature range of 10-65 degrees C is investigated. The thermal conductivity and the dynamic viscosity are measured via Hot Disk TPS-2500S instrument and Brookfield rotational viscometer, respectively, up to 70 degrees C. The thermal analysis results via the pDSC show that the isothermal condition can be approached at a very low scanning rate, however at the cost of a higher noise level. A trade-off is observed for n-octadecane, achieving the lowest deviation of 0.7% in latent heat measurement at 0.05 K/min, as compared to the American Petroleum Table values. For n-eicosane, the lowest deviation of 1.2% is seen at the lowest scanning rate of 0.025 K/min. The thermal conductivity measured values show good agreements with a number of documented literature studies in the solid phase, within deviations of 2%. Larger deviations of 5-16% are found for the measurement in the liquid phase. The viscosity values also show a good agreement with the literature values with maximum deviations of 2.9% and 6.3%, with respect to the values of American Petroleum Tables, for n-octadecane and n-eicosane, respectively. The good agreements achieved in measurements establish the reliable thermo-physical properties contributing to the future simulations and designs., QC 20201126

Three-dimensional (3D) printing, known as additive manufacturing, provides new opportunities for the design and fabrication of highly efficient industrial components. Given the widespread use of this technique by industries, 3D printing is no longer limited to building prototypes. Instead, small-to-medium scale production units focus on reducing the cost associated with each part. Among the various industrial components that can be developed with this manufacturing technology are heat transfer components such as heat exchangers. To this end, this study investigated the heat transfer characteristics of minichannel-based heat exchangers embedded with longitudinal vortex generators, both experimentally and numerically. Three enhanced prototypes with different vortex generator design parameters and a smooth channel as a reference case were printed with an aluminum alloy (AlSi10Mg) using direct metal laser sintering (DMLS). The rectangular minichannel had a hydraulic diameter of 2.86 mm. Distilled water was used as the test fluid, and the Reynolds number varied from 170 to 1380 (i.e., laminar flow). Prototypes were tested under two different constant heat fluxes of 15 kW m(-2) and 30 k m(-2). The experimental results were verified with a commercial simulation tool, Comsol Multiphysics (R), using the 3D conjugate heat transfer model. In the case of the smooth channel, the experimental results were also compared with well-known correlations in the field. The results showed that 95% and 79% of the experimental data were within 10% of the numerical simulation results and the values from the existing correlations, respectively. For the channel enhanced with the vortex generators, the numerical predictions agreed well with the experimental results. It was determined that the vortex generators can enhance the convective heat transfer up to three times with the designed parameter. The findings from this research underline the potential of additive manufacturing in the developmen, QC 20201126

This study investigates the thermal performance of laminar single-phase flow in an additively manufactured minichannel heat exchanger both experimentally and numerically. Distilled water was employed as the working fluid, and the minichannel heat exchanger was made from aluminum alloy (AlSi 1 0Mg) through direct metal laser sintering (DMLS). The minichannel was designed with a hydraulic diameter of 2.86 mm. The Reynolds number ranged from 175 to 1360, and the heat exchanger was tested under two different heat fluxes of 1.5 kWm(-2) and 3 kWm(-2). A detailed experiment was conducted to obtain the thermal properties of AlSi10Mg. Furthermore, the heat transfer characteristics of the minichannel heat exchanger was analyzed numerically by solving a three-dimensional conjugate heat transfer using the COMSOL Multiphysics to verify the experimental results. The experimental results were also compared to widely accepted correlations in literature. It is found that 95% and 79% of the experimental data are within 10% range of both the simulation results and the values from the existing correlations, respectively. Hence, the good agreement found between the experimental and simulation results highlights the possibility of the DMLS technique as a promising method for manufacturing future multiport minichannel heat exchangers., QC 20210914

The most common secondary fluid used for the borehole heat exchangers in Sweden is aqueous solution of ethyl alcohol (EA). Commercially available ethyl alcohol based fluids in Sweden and other European countries contain various denaturing agents. Ethyl alcohol based secondary fluids in Sweden are distributed as ethyl alcohol concentrate, including up to 12 wt-% denaturing agents in form of propyl alcohol (PA) and n-butyl alcohol (BA). In other European countries, like Switzerland and Finland, the commercial products containing a mixture of methyl ethyl ketone and methyl isobutyl ketone (up to 4.5 vol-%) are used for GSHP application. The chemical character of these denaturing agents can in different ways affect the thermophysical properties. Therefore, the aim of this paper was to investigate the performance of commercially available alcohol blends in Europe in terms of pressure drop and heat transfer in the BHE. The results show that the most commonly used product in Sweden (EA18+PA1.6+BA0.4) presents the best characteristics in terms of higher heat transfer (up to 10 %) and lower pressure drop (up to 2.7 %) among different commercial products found in Europe. Another commercial product used in Switzerland showed second best performance in terms of higher heat transfer (up to 5 %) and lower pressure drop (up to 2 %). Moreover, other products containing higher concentrations of denaturing agents presented the worst performance in terms of lower heat transfer (up to 8 %) and higher pressure drop (up to 1 %) than EA20., QC 20171024

The most common secondary fluid used for the borehole heat exchangers in Sweden is an aqueous solution of ethyl alcohol (EA) due to its relatively good thermophysical properties and low toxicity. Commercially available ethyl alcohol based fluids in Sweden contain up to 10 wt-% denaturing agents in form of propyl alcohol (PA) and n-butyl alcohol (BA). The aim of this paper was to investigate the performance of the existing ethyl alcohol blend containing two denaturing agents and alternative alcohol blends in terms of the pressure drop and heat transfer in the BHE and comparison with ethyl alcohol based secondary fluid. Experimental results showed that the presence of these denaturing agents improves thermophysical properties such as specific heat capacity, thermal conductivity and dynamic viscosity when added in small concentration. EA18 + PA1.6 + BA0.4 and EA18.4 + PA1.6 present the best characteristics in terms of the heat transfer and pressure drop. Both blends are giving higher heat transfer coefficient by 9.4 % (EA18 + PA1.6 + BA0.4) and 8.11 % (EA18.4 + PA1.6) than pure EA20. Both blends are giving as well lower pressure drop than EA20 by up to 2.7 % (EA18 + PA1.6 + BA0.4) and 3 % (EA18.4 + PA1.6). EA18 + PA1.6 + BA0.4 gives 1.4 % higher heat transfer coefficient and EA18.4 + PA1.6 gives lower pressure drop by up to 0.4 % when these two blends are compared., Conference code: 126956; Export Date: 22 May 2017; Conference Paper; Funding details: Energimyndigheten; Funding text: The Swedish Energy Agency, Effsys Expand project and all industrial partners are greatly acknowledged for financing this project. QC 20170531

In Sweden, there are more than 500 000 small and about 500 relatively large ground source heat pumps (GSHP) having a total installed capacity of about 5.6 GW delivering approximately 15 TWh. yr-1 of heating and cooling energy in Sweden. The operational lifetime and reliability of any GSHP depends heavily on the way the system is designed, installed and operated. In order to provide a good system performance after installation, aspects such as borehole heat exchanger (BHE) system flushing, charging and purging, among others, should be taken into consideration. The aim of this work has been to review some existing methods of system flushing, charging and purging in order and make observations that may be applicable for the GSHP industry. Two Swedish case studies have been followed up and compared to existing strategies suggested by IGSHPA.The results show that there is a lack of specific recommendations regarding the flushing and purging procedures for BHEs in Sweden. A well-defined range or adaptation of similar IGSHPA standards could help in defining the minimum flush velocity. The two case studies showed different practices, with flushing velocities being significantly higher than the minimum flushing velocity recommended by IGSHPA. Flushing flow rates based on this standard are presented in this work for some typical BHE pipe sizes used in Europe., QC 20171102

Seawater is the most common fluid on earth and ice generating machines are increasingly used on fishing vessels to produce ice slurry from seawater with up to 60% ice to be poured over the catch. In this study, a literature search has been made to establish physical property data of seawater as function of salinity and temperature. Ice slurry properties of seawater have been generated and are presented by means of an enthalpy-phase diagram and related tables with ice concentration, enthalpy change and density. This material confirms that an initial salt content of 2-3 % is optimal and it can help determine the potential for long preservation of catch on board and during transport, improving seafood quality. As seawater is known to be corrosive, a brief discussion on corrosion factors and problems, the use of corrosion inhibitors and choice of materials is included in this paper., QC 20150526

Methyl and ethyl alcohol based secondary fluids are commonly used in different indirect refrigeration systems due to relatively good thermophysical properties. Methyl alcohol is considered toxic and not permitted for use as secondary fluid in most of Europe. Ethyl alcohol based secondary fluids are commonly used in Sweden due to their low toxicity and good properties. Commercially available ethyl alcohol based fluids contain up to 10 wt-% denaturing agents in form of propyl alcohol (2-propanol, isopropanol) and nbutyl alcohol (n-butanol). Results show that presence of propyl alcohol in the ethyl alcohol based secondary fluid improves its thermophysical properties such as specific heat capacity, thermal conductivity and dynamic viscosity when added in small concentration. The aim of this paper is to investigate the thermophysical properties of various ethyl and isopropyl alcohol blends in order to find the most optimal blend as well as to evaluate if this blend could become a competitive alternative secondary fluid., QC 20170628

Seawater is the most common fluid on earth and ice generating machines are increasingly used on fishing vessels to produce ice slurry from seawater with up to 60% ice to be poured over the catch. An experiment using this method has recently shown that sensitive fish immersed in ice slurry, when flown from Japan to Taiwan, arrived in better condition than fish chilled by ordinary procedure. In this study, a literature search has been made to establish physical property data of seawater as function of salinity and temperature. Ice slurry properties of seawater have been generated and are presented by means of an enthalpy-phase diagram and related tables with ice concentration, enthalpy change and density. This material confirms that an initial salt content of 2-3 % is optimal and it can help determine the potential for long preservation of catch on board and during transport. As seawater is known to be corrosive, a brief discussion on corrosion factors and problems, the use of corrosion inhibitors and choice of machine and transport materials is included in this paper., QC 20150807