Preparation and thermophysical properties of nanoparticle-in-paraffin emulsion as phase change material

In this study, phase change material (PCM) embedded by nanoparticles was prepared by emulsifying alumina (Al₂O₃) nanoparticles in paraffin (n-octadecane) by means of a non-ionic surfactant. The formulated nanoparticle-in-paraffin emulsions contain the nanoparticles of 5 wt.% and 10 wt.%, respectively; their effective thermophysical properties, such as latent heat of fusion, density, dynamic viscosity, and thermal conductivity, were investigated experimentally. The experimentally measured density of the emulsions agrees excellently with that predicted based on the mixture theory. The measured thermal conductivity and dynamic viscosity for the nanoparticle-in-paraffin emulsions formulated show a nonlinear increase with the mass fraction of the nanoparticles compared with that for the pure paraffin, depending on the temperature.     

Effect of thermophysical properties models on the predicting of the convective heat transfer coefficient for low concentration nanofluid

The term of nanofluid refers to a solid–liquid mixture with a continuous phase which is a nanometer sized nanoparticle dispersed in conventional base fluids. In order to study the heat transfer behavior of the nanofluids, precise values of thermal and physical properties such as specific heat, viscosity and thermal conductivity of the nanofluids are required. There are a few well-known correlations for predicting the thermal and physical properties of nanofluids which are often cited by researchers to calculate the convective heat transfer behaviors of the nanofluids. Each researcher has used different models of the thermophysical properties in their works. This article aims to summarize the various models for predicting the thermophysical properties of nanofluids which have been commonly cited by a number of researchers and use them to calculate the experimental convective heat transfer coefficient of the nanofluid flowing in a double-tube counter flow heat exchanger. The effects of these models on the predicted value of the convective heat transfer of nanofluid with low nanoparticle concentration are discussed in detail.     

Evaluation of srk equation of state in calculating the thermophysical properties of gas turbine combustion gases

The purpose of this work is to evaluate the thermophysical properties of combustion gases of the gas turbine engine using the Soave-Redlich-Kwong equation of state and to compare the results with those obtained from the virial equation of state and the experimental values obtained from experiment and the generalized charts. The properties which have been considered in this work were, density, specific heat at constant pressure, enthalpy, entropy, viscosity and thermal conductivity. The temperature range was (200–2600 K) theoretically, while the pressure range was (3–12 atmospheres). The Soave-Redlich-Kwong (SRK) equation of state generally predicted better values for thermophysical properties than those predicted by the virial equation of state. A computer program, to evaluate the departure of thermophysical properties using virial and SRK equations of state, was used.     

Estimation of thermophysical properties of fouling using inverse problem and its impact on heat transfer efficiency

At high temperature, the circulation of fluid in heat exchangers provides a tendency for fouling accumulation to take place on the internal surface of tubes. In brief, the deposits on heat exchanger tubes are caused by the presence of inorganic salts, of small quantities of organic materials and products of corrosion in the water. From thermophysical point of view, the deposited fouling has harmful effects on the heat exchanger efficiency. Indeed, it increases the thermal resistance which can raise the energy consumption. This study shows an experimental and a theoretical process of estimation of thermophysical properties of the fouling deposited on a section of a heat exchanger and its effects on the heat transfer efficiency. The estimation method is based on the Gauss-Newton algorithm that minimizes the ordinary least squares function comparing a measured temperature and a theoretical one. The temperature response is measured on the rear face of a bi-layer system composed of a section of a heat exchanger and the fouling deposited on during and after a finite width pulse heat flux on its front face. The theoretical temperature, that is a function of the unknown thermophysical properties of the bi-layer system, is calculated by the resolution of the one-dimensional linear inverse conduction problem, and by the use of the quadrupole formalism.The results of the estimation procedure show, on the one hand the efficiency and the stability of the optimization algorithm to estimate the thermophysical properties of the fouling. On the other hand they underline the necessity of the maintenance of fluid circulating tubes at high temperature.     

Review of necessary thermophysical properties and their sensivities with temperature and electrolyte mass fractions for alkaline water electrolysis multiphysics modelling

This article presents an exhaustive review of the transport properties necessary for the multiphysics modelling of alkaline water electrolyzer. This article provides experimental data and the correlations needed to calculate thermos-physical properties such as electrical conductivity, density, viscosity, heat capacity, heat and mass transfer diffusion coefficients as a function of temperature and electrolyte mass fraction for two classical alkaline electrolytes (KOH, NaOH). Thus, the different boundary layers growing on the electrodes can be calculated with precision. Different interpolation models from various authors are compared to raw experimental data. The goal of this article is to give to the modeler the correlations needed for the simulation of alkaline water electrolysis.     

The influence of binary mixture thermophysical properties in the analysis of heat and mass transfer processes in solar distillation systems

Although a substantial amount of research work has already been devoted to various aspects of modeling the convective and mass transport processes in solar distillation systems, it appears that the role of thermophysical and transport properties of the working medium and their effect on the thermal behavior and performance analysis of such systems has been left almost completely unnoticed. The working medium in these systems, which is a binary mixture of water vapor and dry air in equilibrium, appears to exhibit a completely different set of properties than dry air, especially at saturation conditions and at the higher region of the solar still operational temperature range. An analysis is presented aiming to signify the effect of binary mixture thermophysical properties on the transport processes and the associated quantities and evaluate the thermophysical properties of the working medium in these systems, based on contemporary data for dry air and water vapor. The derived results, in the form of convenient algebraic correlations, are employed to investigate the effect of using the appropriate thermophysical properties on the calculation of the convective heat and mass transfer, as well as the distillate mass flow rates. According to the results from the present investigation, although the use of improper dry air data leads to a significant overestimation of the convective heat transfer coefficient, the errors associated with the use of improper dry air properties is a moderate overestimation of distillate output which is estimated to be up to 10% for maximum average still temperatures of 100 °C.     

Database of thermophysical properties of H2/CO2/CO/CH4/H2O mixtures

As a potential alternative to fossil fuel, hydrogen has attracted much attention due to its renewable and environmentally friendly properties. Systems built for hydrogen-production and hydrogen-application tend to be larger, more integrated and more complex. In order to more efficiently design the vital components of hydrogen energy systems, accurate estimations of the thermodynamic and thermophysical properties of hydrogen-containing mixtures involved is essential. In this study, we introduced methods typically for calculating the thermodynamic and thermophysical properties of H₂/CO₂/CO/CH₄/H₂O mixtures, and established the technical database covering a wide range of mole fractions, pressures and temperatures. Moreover, a user-friendly software integrating all the calculation methods called H2MixThermoDatabase is compiled, whose code has been made available on the GitHub page for other researchers to effectually facilitate the further developments of hydrogen energy system.     

On the texturization of monocrystalline silicon with sodium carbonate solutions

The texturization of monocrystalline silicon wafers using sodium carbonate solution has been investigated. This etching process has been evaluated in terms of the surface morphology and the reflectance value. The results show that for low concentration of sodium carbonate the increase of texturing time decreases the reflectance value because of the change in morphology from hillocks to pyramidal; on the contrary for intermediate and high concentrations the increase of time has a detrimental effect on texturization because it increases both the pyramid sizes and their non-uniform distribution. However, a good cell performance could be obtained by etching at high concentrations and short times.     

Optical properties of tungsten and titanium oxide thin films prepared by plasma sputter deposition

Tungsten oxide and titanium oxide thin films were prepared by RF reactive magnetron sputter deposition. The stationary and rotating substrate holders were applied to analyze the rotating effect. The optical properties and thicknesses of oxide films were determined by a proposed optical model and the measured transmittance spectra. The dispersed refractive indices of thin films have a wide range distribution in different sputtering conditions. In the situation of rotating substrate holder, the refractive index was lower than that of the stationary substrate holder. Also, amorphous TiO₂ structure can be prepared by using rotating substrate holder. The transmittance spectrum of crystalline TiO₂ reveals that the textured structure on the film surface affects the transmittance characteristic.     

Investigation of texturization for monocrystalline silicon solar cells with different kinds of alkaline

In this paper, monocrystalline silicon was textured with different kind of etchants for solar cells, respectively. It was found that, only with sodium hydroxide (NaOH) or sodium acetate anhydrous (CH₃COONa) solution, the textural results were very weak, resulting in high reflectance of silicon surface. However, if using the mixture solution of NaOH and CH₃COONa, the reflectance was noticeably decreased. Moreover, the dependence of reflectance on the etching time showed that longer etching time was necessary for texturization in the NaOH+CH₃COONa+H₂O system. And it was also found that the addition of isopropyl alcohol (IPA) to this mixture solution had a detrimental effect on the texturization. All these results suggested that acetate (CH₃COO⁻) plays a similar role as IPA for alkaline texturization, but they cannot coexist. Finally, the mechanisms of texturization with different kinds of etchant were discussed in detail.     

Texturization of monocrystalline silicon with tribasic sodium phosphate

Tribasic sodium phosphate (Na₃PO₄·12H₂O) was successfully introduced to texture monocrystalline silicon for the first time. A series of comparative experiments were made to indicate the dependence of hemispherical surface reflectance on the tribasic sodium phosphate (Na₃PO₄·12H₂O) concentration, reaction temperature and etching time. Meanwhile, the effects of other agents, such as isopropyl alcohol (IPA), sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and bi-sodium hydrogen phosphate (Na₂HPO₄) on average reflectance were also investigated. The results showed that IPA and NaOH have great detrimental effects on texture, and the average reflectance slightly increased with the addition of Na₂HPO₄. On the basis of our experiments, it is concluded that the effect of phosphatidate (PO₄³⁻) or its compounds on the texturization is the same as that of the mixture of alkaline and IPA. Furthermore, this method is economical, has low pollution and good reproducibility. We feel that it is suitable for the large-scale production.     

Structural and electrochromic properties of tungsten oxide prepared by surfactant-assisted process

By virtue of gemini surfactant template, nanostructured tungsten oxides thin films were prepared from the modified tungsten hexachloride sol-gel techniques. Temperature was varied as it is an important factor for crystallization, surface morphology and microstructure of tungsten oxides, from the studies of X-ray diffractions, scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The mesoporous sample calcined at 300 °C has tri-dimensional vermicular mesopores with nanocrystallites embedded in the pore wall, while such uniform structure would be destroyed by higher calcination temperature of about 400 °C. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy was used for analyzing the surface-binding states and the stoichiometry for the oxides. Electrochromic characterization was implemented by simultaneous voltametric and spectrophotometric measurements of tungsten oxides/indium tin oxide (ITO) electrodes. The investigation results showed that organized pore-wall nanostructure has strong effects on the electrochemical and chromogenic properties depending on the specific surface area and the impacts from the evolved crystallization.     

Electrochromic properties of one-dimensional tungsten oxide nanobundles

In this study, one-dimensional (1D) tungsten oxide nanobundles (TNB) were synthesized via a simple solvothermal method. The phase of 1D tungsten oxide was W₁₈O₄₉, and the diameter and length of the building units (nanowires) were about 7 and 800 nm, respectively. TNB films were fabricated by the Langmuir–Blodgett (LB) method. The locally arranged domains of the long nanobundles form the LB films, but it is difficult for them to align perfectly owing to the inter-nanobundle interaction and dispersion problems. The electrochromic (EC) property of the TNB LB films was characterized by electrochemical potential cycling tests and in situ transmittance measurement. The deposition condition of the LB films influenced their EC property. The heat treatment and surface pressure of the TNB LB films plays an important role in the response time and transmittance of the TNBs.     

Thermophysical properties of supercritical H2 from Molecular Dynamics simulations

The ability to predict thermophysical properties of molecular hydrogen with high accuracy, especially at high pressures, is crucial to design and to operate processes involving compressed hydrogen. Molecular simulations comprise an adequate tool to investigate both thermodynamic and transport properties of different molecular systems using a single potential energy surface model. Such a potential is called a force field. Here we propose a new single-site force field for pure hydrogen using a Mie potential to describe the intermolecular interactions. The proposed force field yields better predictions of thermodynamic properties when compared to other available force fields that use Lennard-Jones interaction potential. The new force field is also able to predict transport properties with reasonable accuracy.     

Thickness-dependent electrochromic properties of solution thermolyzed tungsten oxide thin films

Tungsten oxide (WO₃) thin films are prepared by using a simple and inexpensive solution thermolysis technique. Thin film samples of different thickness are obtained by varying quantity of ammonium tungstate solution sprayed onto the preheated conducting glass substrate. A simple three-electrode cell has been formed to study the electrochemical and electrochromic properties. The electrochemical parameters of the cell such as anodic peak current, anodic peak potential, threshold voltage, amount of H⁺ ions intercalated into and deintercalated out of the WO₃ samples are calculated. The effect of film thickness on these parameters are studied. The extent of electrochromism and reversibility of the colouration/bleaching processes of various WO₃ samples are described. The colouration efficiencies at 633 nm are calculated. The maximum colouration efficiency obtained for thicker film, is 56 cm²/C. The samples were found to be stable in 0.05N H₂SO₄ electrolyte up to 1×10³ colour/bleach cycles.     

Electrodeposition and pseudocapacitive properties of tungsten oxide/polyaniline composite

Composite films of tungsten oxide (WO₃) and polyaniline (PANI) have been electrodeposited by cyclic voltammetry in a mixed solution of aniline and precursor of tungsten oxide. Surface morphology and chemical composition of WO₃/PANI composite are characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The influence of H₂O₂ on the electrodeposition of WO₃/PANI composite film is also investigated. Cyclic voltammetry (CV), chronopotentiometry (CP) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) results show that WO₃/PANI composite film exhibit good pseudocapacitive performance over a wide potential range of −0.5 to 0.7 V vs. SCE with the specific capacitance of 168 F g⁻¹ at current density of 1.28 mA cm⁻² and energy density of 33.6 Wh kg⁻¹, which is 91% higher than that of similarly prepared PANI (17.6 Wh kg⁻¹). An asymmetric model capacitor using WO₃/PANI as negative and PANI as positive electrodes over voltage range of 1.2 V displays a specific capacitance of 48.6 F g⁻¹ and energy density of 9.72 Wh kg⁻¹ at the power density of 53 W kg⁻¹, which is two times higher than that of a symmetric capacitor modeled by using two PANI films as both positive and negative electrodes.     

Comparative analysis of thermophysical properties of mixed nitrates

熔融盐作为传蓄热介质已经广泛应用于太阳能光热发电中,硝酸盐以其熔点低、成本和腐蚀性小等优点成功应用于商业电站。采用差示扫描量热法、热重法、DIN法、激光闪射法、阿基米德原理和旋转法对Solar salt（60% NaNO₃+40% KNO₃）、Hitec（7% NaNO₃+53% KNO₃+40% NaNO₂）、Hitec XL[7% NaNO₃+45% KNO₃+48% Ca（NO₃）₂]以及本课题组自主研制的四元混合硝酸盐[16.67% Ca（NO₃）₂·4H₂O+44.17% KNO₃+5.83% NaNO₃+33.33% NaNO₂]的熔点、分解温度、比热容、热导率、密度及黏度进行测量和对比研究,分析4种混合硝酸盐热物性优缺点,为工程应用提供基础性数据。结果显示,在四种混合硝酸盐中,四元盐熔点最低、分解温度最高、平均比热容和热导率均高于其他三种混合硝酸盐,Hitec XL密度最大,Solar salt黏度最低。     

Influence of polyethylene glycol template on microstructure and electrochromic properties of tungsten oxide

Electrochemical synthesis of tungsten oxide (WO₃) thin film nanostructures by potentiostatically controlling the surface aggregates formed at the electrode–electrolyte interface, in the presence of a polymeric template (polyethylene glycol 400, PEG) from a plating sol of peroxotungstic acid (PTA) is presented. The nanoparticulate morphology of the WO₃ film changes drastically upon varying PEG content in the precursor sol; from an amorphous structure with randomly distributed pores for a film derived from a PTA sol with PEG:ethanol in a 3:7 volume ratio, to a mesoporous, nanocrystalline material with hybrid structures encompassing spherical grains and nanorod-like shapes with a triclinic modification for a film formed in a sol with PEG:ethanol in a 1:1 volume ratio. This approach highlights the role of the PEG proportion in controlling crystal growth, assembly patterns and pore structure. The film derived from the sol with PEG:ethanol in a 1:1 volume ratio exhibits superior transmission modulation and coloration efficiency as compared to the film obtained from a sol with PEG:ethanol in a 3:7 volume ratio. While the latter film deteriorates rapidly within 35 color-bleach cycles, the former film sustains more than 3500 cycles, without significant degradation. This film also exhibits fast switching between the clear and blue states; these are repercussions of the mesopore structure and the interconnected nanocrystallite phase.     

流体热物性测试用全自动高精度恒温槽的研制

为解决高精度流体热物性测试中的恒温环境问题 ,研制了一套高精度的恒温槽。恒温槽的温度控制系统采用准二维模糊控制器和 PID控制相结合的方法。同时 ,利用 C ++语言 ,在 Windows环境中实现了恒温槽温度控制和测量的全自动化。实验结果表明 :恒温槽的可控温度为室温至 2 5 0℃ ,波动度优于± 3 m K/1 5min,达到国外同类产品的水平 ,完全能够满足高精度流体热物性测试的需要     

Intelligent modeling of rheological and thermophysical properties of nanoencapsulated PCM slurry

Nanoencapsulated phase change material slurries (NPCMS) combine properties of carried fluid and phase change material (PCM). Usage of NPCMS instead of water as a working fluid has a lot of advantages in many industrial fields. The costly and time‐consuming determination of thermophysical properties of NPCMS through the experimental analysis led the current investigations to use soft computing methods like correlating, artificial neural network (ANN), and ant colony optimization (ACO_R). In this study, the application of ANN, empirical correlations, and ACO_R for modeling the thermophysical properties of NPCM slurry, which has been synthesized through a facile and eco‐friendly procedure, has been investigated. PCM nanocapsules have been synthesized using a miniemulsion polymerization method. Nancapsules consist of AP‐25 as core and a Styrene shell, which is modified with graphene oxide nanosheets as an extra protective screen. The morphology and thermal properties of nanocapsules were characterized and analyzed, respectively. Results revealed that minimum average particle‐size values result in a melting latent heat of 146.8 J/g. In case of NPCM slurry, the results showed that the thermal conductivity of MPCS decreased with particle concentration for the temperatures below the melting point. The NPCMS can be considered a Newtonian fluid within the test region (shear rate > 200/seconds and mass fraction < 0.25). The ANN‐ACO_R model consists of two neurons in the input layer, six neurons in the hidden layer, and two neurons in the output layer. The input layer consists of two nodes (PCM concentration and temperature) that correspond to parameters found essential and sufficient for thermophysical properties prediction. Upon comparison, the results show that the presented model, which is a combination of the ACO_R algorithm and an artificial neural network, is compatible with experimental work.