Experimental Study of Cold Storage Characteristics of Nanofluids as the Phase Change Material

A spot of Cu nanoparticles (particle size 25nm) are added in the deionized water,through supersonic oscillating and addition of the dispersant,and the Cu-H2O nanofluids with better stability and evenness are prepared. The effect of nanoparticle agent on supercooling of the deionized water is experimentally studied in this paper,and the temperature distribution of the cold storage process is observed on line by using infrared heat camera. The results show that Cu-H2O nanofluids have remarkably lower super-cooling degree than water,and as the mass fraction of Cu increases,the freezing time of Cu-H2O nanofluid is shorter than that of deionized water. The phase change temperature of Cu-H2O nanofluids is about 1℃ higher than that of the deionized water,which indicates its great potential for lowering cost and reducing consumption of energy.