Experimental Investigation of the Effect of Nanofluid on Thermal Energy Storage System Using Clathrate

Climatic change illustrates the need to new policy of load management. In this research, a special design of thermal energy storage (TES) system, with an appropriate storage medium that is suitable for residential and commercial buildings has been constructed and commissioned. Direct contact heat transfer is a significant factor to enhance the performance of TES. Numerous experimental runs were conducted to investigate the clathrate formation and the characteristics of the proposed TES cooling system; in addition, the effect of using nanofluid particles Al₂O₃ on the formation of clathrate under different operating parameters was evaluated. The experiments were conducted with a fixed amount of water 15 kg, mass of refrigerant to form clathrate of 6.5 kg, nanofluid particles concentration ranged from 0.5% to 2% and the mass flux of refrigerant varied from 150 to 300 kg/m² s. The results indicate that there is a significant effect of using nanoparticles concentration on the charging time of the clathrate formation. The percentage of reduction in charging time of about 22% was achieved for high nanoparticles concentration. In addition, an enhancement in charging time by increasing the refrigerant flow rate reaches 38% when the mass flux varied from 200 to 400 kg/m² s. New correlation describing the behavior of the temperatures with the charging time at different nanoparticles concentrations is presented.