Thermal Analysis of a Solar Wall Equipped to Nano Phase Change Material

In this paper, the thermal analysis of a solar wall equipped to nano phase change material is carried out, numerically. The governing equation of transient heat conduction is solved by a finite difference technique based on enthalpy method. The validation of numerical results of present study is carried out with the experimental data. There is a fair agreement between numerical results and experimental data. In parametric studies the volume fraction effect of carbon nano tubes and alumina nano particles and the thickness of phase change material is investigated. Present study results showed that suitable improvement in solar wall thermal performance is obtained due to the addition of carbon nano tubes and alumina nano particles to base phase change material. However, carbon nano tubes yield better performance. Performance improvement reasons include the increase of heat transfer speed due to the increase of thermal conductivity and the completion of melting and solidification process. Occurrences resultant leads to a 9% increase in the thermal efficiency of solar wall for 3% volume fraction of carbon nano tubes. Generally, the results of present study give the possibility of the design of a solar wall equipped to phase change material with about 40% of thermal efficiency.