Influence of the Physical State of Microencapsulated PCM on the Pressure Drop of Slurry in a Circular Channel

Phase Change Material (PCM) is mainly used in thermal energy storage. The addition of small PCM particles to the working fluid circulating in the heat exchange systems allowed to increase the amount of transported energy thanks to the use of latent heat—the heat of phase change. Encapsulating PCM in microcapsules avoids the disadvantages of PCM emulsions and makes the resulting slurry an attractive heat energy carrier. The paper presents the effect of the aggregate state of PCM enclosed in microcapsules on the flow resistance of the slurry through a rectilinear tubular channel. The tests were carried out with the use of a tube with an internal diameter of 4 mm and a measuring section length of 400 mm. A slurry of 21.5 wt.% PCM microcapsules (MPCM) was used as the working fluid in distilled water. A slurry with temperatures of 18.4 °C (PCM encapsulated in a solid state), 26.1 °C (PCM is in a phase change), and 30.5 °C (PCM in a liquid state) flowed through the measuring section. The mass flow rate of the MPCM slurry reached 70 kg/h (Re(max) = 2150). It was shown that the higher the Re number, the higher the value of the flow resistance, and the more clearly this value depended on the temperature of the slurry. Detailed analyses indicate that the observed changes were not the result of a change in the viscosity of the slurry, but its density depending on the state of the PCM. Significant changes in the density of the slurry in the range of the phase transition temperature are the result of significant changes in the volume of the microcapsule containing the phase change material in different aggregate states.