Thermal performance of a vertical u-shaped thermosyphon containing a phase-change material suspension fluid

Abstract

This study investigated the thermal performance of a vertical U-shaped thermosyphon containing a phase-change material (PCM) suspension fluid via experimentation. The heating and cooling sections were located at the top and bottom of the loop, respectively. The lengths of the heating and cooling sections each accounted for one fifth of the height of the loop. Pure water and a PCM (octadecane) suspension fluid were used to fill the loop to compare the thermal performance of the thermosyphon under different heating power, cooling temperature, and PCM suspension concentration conditions. The results showed that, when the PCM suspension concentration was higher than a critical value, the addition of the PCM suspension had no positive effect on reducing the highest temperature of the fluid in the loop but instead resulted in an increase in fluid temperature. More detailed experiments are needed to observe the phenomena and decide critical values under different experimental parameters.