Search

The energy impact of integrating phase change materials (PCMs) in buildings for thermal energy storage has been modeled by various whole-building simulation programs, demonstrating that PCM incorporation can reduce energy consumption, provide grid flexibility and resilience, and reduce CO2 emissions. The models assume that the PCMs are in perfect operating condition and underestimate the impact of actual phase change behavior (e.g., enthalpy curve shape) on thermal load shifting in practical deployment. In this paper, we bridge the gap between theory and practice when evaluating the energy impact of PCMs by using a model-driven approach to develop durable thermal energy storage materials with desired phase change properties. For ease of integration, we fabricate shape-stabilized PCMs (ss-PCMs) by encapsulating solid-liquid polyethylene glycol (PEG) consisting of different molecular weights within mesoporous magnesium oxide (MgO) matrices. Learning from the modeling results, we manipulate phase change properties such as peak melting temperature and temperature glide of PEG-MgO ss-PCMs during the synthesis process to achieve desired properties. As such, the energy density is maximized within the optimum operating temperature range, which is critical to boosting energy efficiency. Compared to a case with no PCM, a layer of PEG-MgO ss-PCM integrated into the wall provides a 50% reduction in the peak load and also exhibits a repeatable phase change behavior for up to 1000 thermal cycles without leakage, showing durability of this material. We also show that this lab-scale synthesis process is easy to be scaled up by 100 times for a demonstration of large-scale industrial production. The synthetic tunability of transition temperature of ss-PCMs also extends their applicability beyond buildings.

Low-grade thermal energy, either from waste heat or from natural resources, constitutes an enormous energy reserve that remains to be fully harvested. Harvesting low-grade heat is challenging because of the low Carnot efficiency. Among various thermal energy harvesting mechanisms available for capturing low-grade heat (temperature less than 100 °C), the thermomagnetic effect has been found to be quite promising. In this study, we demonstrate a scalable thermomagnetic energy harvester architecture that exhibits 140% higher power density compared to the previously published spring–mass designs. The alternating force required to oscillate the thermomagnetic mass is generated through the interaction between two magnetic forces in opposite directions. We employed numerical modeling to illustrate the behavior of a thermomagnetic device under different operating conditions and to obtain the optimal hot-side and cold-side temperatures for continuous mode operations. A miniaturized thermomagnetic harvester was fabricated and experiments were conducted to systematically evaluate the performance. The prototype was found to exhibit an oscillation frequency of 0.33 Hz, a work output of 0.6 J/kg/cycle, and a power density of 0.2 W/kg of gadolinium under the temperature difference of 60 K. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last few decades, considerable effort has been made to enhance the figure-of-merit (ZT) of thermoelectric (TE) materials. However, the performance of commercial TE devices still remains low due to the fact that the module figure-of-merit not only depends on the material ZT, but also on the operating conditions and configuration of TE modules. This study takes into account comprehensive set of parameters to conduct the numerical performance analysis of the thermoelectric cooler (TEC) using a Taguchi optimization method. The Taguchi method is a statistical tool that predicts the optimal performance with a far less number of experimental runs than the conventional experimental techniques. Taguchi results are also compared with the optimized parameters obtained by a full factorial optimization method, which reveals that the Taguchi method provides optimum or near-optimum TEC configuration using only 25 experiments against 3125 experiments needed by the conventional optimization method. This study also shows that the environmental factors such as ambient temperature and cooling coefficient do not significantly affect the optimum geometry and optimum operating temperature of TECs. The optimum TEC configuration for simultaneous optimization of cooling capacity and coefficient of performance is also provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thermal diodes are passive systems that modulate their thermal resistance depending on the direction of temperature gradient, thereby allowing preferential directional heat flow. A dual phase thermal diode consists of a junction between two phase change materials that have opposing temperature‐dependent thermal conductivity trends, and whose performance (i.e., rectification ratio) is related to the ratio of the thermal conductivities of the different phases. In this work, a dual phase change diode with a rectification ratio of ≈3.5 for an applied temperature bias of ≈40 K is presented, which is among the highest‐performing junction diodes based on phase change materials at the macroscale for near room temperature applications. The diode is composed of an aqueous solution of poly(N‐isopropylacrylamide), a thermo‐responsive polymer, and calcium chloride hexahydrate—a solid‐liquid phase change material. Experimental insights are provided into the contributions of different heat transfer mechanisms, conduction, and convection, and the effect of concentration of the thermo‐responsive polymer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]