Preparation and Numerical Simulation of Heat Transfer Performance for Methyl Palmitate-Methyl Stearate Binary Eutectic Mixture/Expanded Graphite Composite Phase Change Material

The binary eutectic mixtures of fatty acid esters are promising phase change materials for energy storage application. However, the low thermal conductivity which is a common problem for organic phase change materials restricts their further and better applications. In order to solve the problem, a novel composite phase change material (CPCM) was prepared in this research by using methyl palmitate-methyl stearate (MP-MS), a typical binary eutectic mixture of fatty acid esters, as phase change material and expanded graphite (EG) as heat transfer enhancer. The heat transfer performance of MP-MS/EG CPCM was numerical simulated by finite element analysis software ABAQUS. Numerical simulation results revealed that EG could notably enhance the heat transfer performance of MP-MS eutectic mixture. The heat transfer rate and phase change reaction rate of MP-MS/EG CPCM were 14 times and 3 times that of MP-MS eutectic mixture, respectively.