DSC study of technical grade phase change heat storage materials for solar heating applications

Conference · Wed Nov 01 04:00:00 EST 1995

OSTI ID:116240

Gibbs, B M; Hasnain, S M ^[1]

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1. Univ. of Leeds (United Kingdom). Dept. of Fuel and Energy

Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was used to investigate the behavior of storage materials that undergo solid-liquid phase transitions. Heating scans were used to measure the enthalpy that can be stored and cooling scans were used to estimate the magnitude of the enthalpy that may be recovered from the storage material. The automatic and rapid thermal cycling features of the DSC system were used to study thermal decomposition that may arise from the daily duty cycle of the storage medium. In this study, DSC methods were applied to technical grade paraffin wax, calcium chloride hexahydrate and disodium hydrogen phosphate dodecahydrate. In the case of inorganic salt hydrates, DSC measurements showed a decrease in heat of fusion; thermal cycling and thermograms revealed considerable super cooling. This would lead to a reduction in storage capacity. On the other hand paraffin wax did not supercool nor were there any indications that thermal cycling or contact with metal could degrade its thermal performance.

• OSTI ID: 116240
• Report Number(s): CONF-950336--; ISBN 0-7918-1300-2
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
LATENT HEAT STORAGE
NONDESTRUCTIVE TESTING
PARAFFIN
PHASE CHANGE MATERIALS
SERVICE LIFE