Characterizing phase change materials using the T-History method: On the factors influencing the accuracy and precision of the enthalpy-temperature curve

While research on using the latent heat of so called phase change materials (PCMs) for thermal energy storage has gained increasing interest in the last decade, the measurement of its thermal properties are still subject to research. The T-History method has been frequently used by researchers to measure the enthalpy–temperature curve of PCMs but the factors influencing its accuracy and precision have rarely been discussed. This work provides a systematic experimental study of an organic PCM based on different insulated sample holders. It is first shown that the data evaluation method has to be adjusted against noise to improve both accuracy and precision for all experimental setups. The results moreover show that neglecting the insulation thermal mass in the experimental setup leads to systematic errors in the enthalpy results due to oversimplification of the mathematical model. This confirms a previous numerical study by the authors. It is recommended that either the mathematical model or the experimental setup are adjusted in future work to decrease this error. Until then it is generally recommended to use sample holders with a high ratio between the thermal mass of the PCM to the insulated sample holder. This is further supported by a measurement uncertainty analysis via Monte Carlo simulations.

[1]  Quantification of the natural convection perturbations on differential scanning calorimetry measurements of PCMs , 2017 .

[2]  Panayiotis A. Kyriacou,et al.  Improved measurement technique for the characterization of organic and inorganic phase change materials using the T-history method , 2013 .

[3]  Angela Sasic Kalagasidis,et al.  Correction of the enthalpy–temperature curve of phase change materials obtained from the T-History method based on a transient heat conduction model , 2017 .

[4]  Thomas de Quincey.  [C] , 2000, The Works of Thomas De Quincey, Vol. 1: Writings, 1799–1820.

[5]  T. Kousksou,et al.  Energy storage: Applications and challenges , 2014 .

[6]  Zhang Yinping,et al.  A simple method, the -history method, of determining the heat of fusion, specific heat and thermal conductivity of phase-change materials , 1999 .

[7]  Stefan Hiebler,et al.  Calibration of a T-History calorimeter to measure enthalpy curves of phase change materials in the temperature range from 40 to 200 °C , 2014 .

[8]  Mohamed Khayet,et al.  Temperature-dependent thermal properties of solid/liquid phase change even-numbered n-alkanes: n-Hexadecane, n-octadecane and n-eicosane , 2015 .

[9]  Jan Hrubý,et al.  Reference Correlations for Thermophysical Properties of Liquid Water at 0.1 MPa , 2009 .

[10]  Tsuyoshi Murata,et al.  {m , 1934, ACML.

[11]  L. Cabeza,et al.  Review of the T-history method to determine thermophysical properties of phase change materials (PCM) , 2013 .

[12]  Javier Mazo,et al.  A theoretical study on the accuracy of the T-history method for enthalpy–temperature curve measurement: analysis of the influence of thermal gradients inside T-history samples , 2015 .

[13]  K. D’Avignon,et al.  Modeling and Experimental Validation of the Performance of Phase Change Material Storage Tanks in Buildings , 2015 .

[14]  Luisa F. Cabeza,et al.  Corrosion of metals and salt hydrates used for thermochemical energy storage , 2015 .

[15]  Luisa F. Cabeza,et al.  Standardization of PCM characterization via DSC , 2015 .

[16]  Harald Mehling,et al.  Enthalpy of Phase Change Materials as a Function of Temperature: Required Accuracy and Suitable Measurement Methods , 2009 .

[17]  Michaël Kummert,et al.  Assessment of T-History Method Variants to Obtain Enthalpy–Temperature Curves for Phase Change Materials With Significant Subcooling , 2015 .

[18]  Naomi S. Altman,et al.  Points of Significance: Visualizing samples with box plots , 2014, Nature Methods.

[19]  Cruz Meneses-Fabian,et al.  A differential formulation of the T-History calorimetric method , 2010 .

[20]  J. Arblaster,et al.  Thermodynamic Properties of Copper , 2015 .

[21]  L. Cabeza,et al.  Critical analysis of the T-history method: A fundamental approach , 2017 .

[22]  S. B. Stankovic,et al.  Investigation of advanced experimental and computational techniques for behavioural characterisation of phase change materials (pcms) , 2014 .

[23]  M. Farid,et al.  Compatibility of materials for macroencapsulation of inorganic phase change materials: Experimental corrosion study , 2016 .

[24]  L. Cabeza,et al.  Heat and cold storage with PCM: An up to date introduction into basics and applications , 2008 .

[25]  L. Cabeza,et al.  Determination of enthalpy?temperature curves of phase change materials with the temperature-history method: improvement to temperature dependent properties , 2003 .

[26]  Innovative Phase Change Material (PCM) for Heat Storage for Industrial Applications , 2014 .

[27]  G. G. Stokes.  "J." , 1890, The New Yale Book of Quotations.

[28]  Luisa F. Cabeza,et al.  Review on thermal energy storage with phase change: materials, heat transfer analysis and applications , 2003 .

[29]  P. Eilers.  A perfect smoother. , 2003, Analytical chemistry.

[30]  Stefan Hiebler,et al.  Kalorimetrische Methoden zur Bestimmung der Enthalpie von Latentwärmespeichermaterialien während des Phasenübergangs , 2007 .

[31]  Jonathan J. Stickel,et al.  Data smoothing and numerical differentiation by a regularization method , 2010, Comput. Chem. Eng..

[32]  Gorjan Alagic,et al.  #p , 2019, Quantum information & computation.

[33]  F. Hemberger,et al.  Round-Robin Test of Paraffin Phase-Change Material , 2015 .

[34]  H. Hong,et al.  Accuracy improvement of T-history method for measuring heat of fusion of various materials , 2004 .