Phase Change Material (PCM)-based thermal storage system for managing the sonochemical reactor heat: Thermodynamic analysis of the liquid height impact

As an alternative to a water-based cooling system for a sonoreactor, the present work presents for the first time the use of a phase change material for the management and storage of the dissipated heat within the sonicated water. The performance of the PCM is analyzed as a function of liquid height (LH = 5.1, 10.2, 15.3, and 20.4 cm) at a frequency of 300 kHz and two electric powers (PE = 20 and 60 W). The effective powers dissipated in the irradiated water were determined by the calorimetric technique. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model (implemented in ANSYS Fluent & REG; software), was used for the analysis of the combined system (sonoreactor + PCM-thermal unit) at different operating conditions (liquid height and electric power). By analyzing the different outputs (variation of temperature, velocity, enthalpy, liquid fraction of PCM) of the used CFD model, more clarifications are provided about the behaviour of the combined system (sonoreactor + PCM-thermal unit) as function of the liquid height (5.1-20.4 cm) and electric power (20 and 60 W). In terms of temperature, velocity, enthalpy and liquid fraction of the PCM, promising results were obtained in spite of the low thermal conductivity of the employed PCM. The best performance of the combined system (sonoreactor and thermal unit) was obtained at the liquid height of 15.3 cm (corresponding to a water volume of 300 mL) with a similar behaviour (evolution of temperature, velocity, enthalpy, and liquid fraction of the PCM) at both electric powers (i.e., 20 and 60 W) with an intensified response at the PE = 60 W.

Automated summary

This study presents the use of a phase change material (PCM) as an alternative cooling system for a sonoreactor, and analyzes the performance of the PCM at different liquid heights and electric powers. Despite the low thermal conductivity of the PCM, promising results were obtained, with the best performance observed at a liquid height of 15.3 cm and an electric power of 60 W.