Improving Air Conditioning Performance With Circular Phase Change Materials Based Heat Storage

Abstract

This study analyzes the impact of using single and multiple circular phase change materials (PCMs) to enhance the performance of an air-conditioning (AC) unit. The technique involves attaching a heat exchanger containing cold energy storage PCM to the air conditioner's condenser. During the daytime, warm surrounding air is cooled and transmitted to the condenser of the air-conditioning system. The computational study is conducted using the SST k –ω turbulence model. The air inlet temperature to the PCM is kept at 308.15 K, and the air flow rate is kept constant at 49 L/s. The findings indicate that, during the discharging process, the complete melting time for the multi-circular PCM increases by almost 72% compared to the single-circular PCM. Temperature contours reveal that turbulence happens in the solid zone, primarily at higher temperatures, within the PCM melting region. This suggests enhanced convection in this region. The fall in the outlet air temperature is greater for the multi-circular PCM relative to the single-circular PCM. The coefficient of performance (COP) increases by approximately 87.57% for the multi-circular PCM system and 7.60% for the single-circular PCM unit during summer. The power saved by the single-circular PCM is about 0.3792 W for 6 h of operation, while the multi-circular PCM saves approximately 4.3821 W.