Thermal performance of forced convection of water- NEPCM nanofluid over a semi-cylinder heat source for energy storage applications

Phase change materials (PCMs) have been used statically, which has caused the use of these materials to face challenges. Encapsulating PCMs and combining them with the base fluid can significantly solve the problem of using PCMs in BTM systems. In the present study, based on computational fluid dynamics, forced convection heat transfer of nano-encapsulated phase change materials (NEPCM) in a BTM system are simulated. The main aim of the present research is to reduce the temperature at the surface of the hot cylinder. In this research, we simulated lithium battery thermal management systems in both steady and transient states. The effects of using NEPCM particles to water were investigated. Modeling is implemented using the finite volume method and the PIMPLE and SIMPLE algorithms in OpenFoam. Furthermore, the effects of battery heat flux, Reynolds number, and the presence of nanoparticles (NPs) were analyzed. We intend to evaluate the optimal state of the system by studying the mentioned parameters. Our study shows that adding 3.5% NEPCM to water can reduce the length of the vortex by 22% and in unsteady-state simulation, it is observed that the presence of NEPCM particles in water reduces battery temperature up to 0.66 K.