Author : Ajay M Nair and P Vinod Kumar Naidu

The present work is focussed on the experimental study of a PCM storage unit for thermal energy storage. Thermal energy storage systems are temporary storage of the thermal energy at high or low temperature and is a very essential tool to reduce the mismatch between supply and demand of energy. These also play very important role in energy conservation. In this experiments two PCM’s Paraffin wax and Myristic acid are compared by analysing their charging and discharging (storing) period, which is done in a simple and economically fabricated experimental set up. It is found that Myristic acid took only 2 hours and 25 minutes for complete charging while it was around 3 hours and 7 minutes for Paraffin wax. During storage period analysis it is evident that the Myristic acid stored heat better than Paraffin. However the drop in temperature of Myristic acid was just 70C in 8hours whereas it was around 120C for Paraffin wax in the same time period.

Keywords: Phase Change Materials (PCMs), Chagrining, Discharging, Storage period

Article published in International Journal of Current Engineering and Technology, Vol.8, No.1 (Jan/Feb 2018)