A numerical investigation on free cooling by a PCM-heat exchanger

Autor/autori: Kamil KAHVECI, Dinçer AKA

Abstract: Free cooling is a process in that cool air circulates through a thermal storage system in the night time. During the day, air is circulated through the storage device by a mechanical ventilation in order to cool a room. In this study, a numerical study was performed to simulate heat transfer and fluid flow in a heat exchanger with a plate type storage consisting of a phase change material (PCM). The results show that cooling performance is strongly affected by mass flow rate in the heat exchanger. The results also show that a considerable increase is seen in cooling power when the mass flow rate is increased. On the other hand, temperature gets higher values when a higher mass flow rate is used.

Keywords: Free cooling, PCM, heat exchanger, rubitherm, latent heat.

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