Influence of volumetric fiber fraction and heating temperature on heat transfer characteristics of latent heat storage paraffin with aluminum fiber materials

Paraffin is used as a latent heat energy storage material because it has relatively high latent heat and various melting points. However, the low thermal conductivity of paraffin leads to more time in latent heat storage and release processes. Therefore, it is necessary to improve the latent heat storage and release processes of paraffin. It is noted that metal fiber materials are mixed with paraffin in order to enhance the effective thermal conductivity of paraffin. The present investigation experimentally deals with the heat storage and heat release process of paraffin with metal fiber materials as a function of the volumetric fiber fraction and heating temperature. As a result, the heat release characteristic of paraffin with metal fiber materials was improved by enhanced effective thermal conductivity. On the other hand, the heat storage process of paraffin with metal fiber materials was influenced by the natural convection flow, and the heat storage process was not improved because of the interaction between the enhanced effective thermal conductivity and suppression of the natural convection flow by the metal fiber materials.