Abstract
In the present paper, a plate-fin heat exchanger with a phase change material (PCM) was studied. The heat exchanger was a singlepass cross-flow type, where both fluids (air) were unmixed. N-octadecane, of which the fusion temperature is 28.0°C, was used as the PCM. Three kinds of experiments were carried out and the inlet and outlet temperatures and the temperatures in the PCM were measured. In the first experiments, the effectiveness and the overall heat-transfer coefficient were obtained at steady states. By the calculations of steady three-dimensional heat conduction, the effects of the parameters, ---, dimensions, thermal properties, and heat transfer coefficients of air ---, on the overall heat-transfer coefficients were obtaiend clearly. In the second experiments, after the higher-temperature air-flow was stopped, the outlet temperatures of the lower-temperature air were maintained at the constant temperatures for 90-150 minutes. In the third experiments, the higher temperature air was flowed intermittently with an equal interval. The fluctuation of the outlet temperature of the lower-temperature air was within ±2.5°C. The above transient and periodical experiments showed that the present heat exchanger with PCM had useful characters of latent heat storage.
