Investigation of High Surface Air-to-Phase-Change-Material Heat Exchangers for the Heating, Ventilation, and Air-Conditioning Industry

<p>In today’s built environment, the balancing act between conventional and renewable energy pro- duction has led to rapid demand spikes for greenhouse gas-emitting power generation sources at specific times of the day. These demand spikes can be combated by utilizing energy storage to store excess renewable energy produced. The energy demand of the residential sector matches that of the overall power grid. However, this sector is currently dependent on costly electrochemical batteries for energy storage. The purpose of this research is to investigate alternatives to electrochemical batteries through thermal energy storage for the residential sector. Utilizing phase change materials, thermal energy storage can be downsized from large, campus-scale solutions for the residential sector through the design and testing of an air-to-phase change material heat exchanger. In this study, high surface area heat exchangers that contain phase change materials will be designed and additively manufactured through masked stereolithography printing for testing. While keeping the volume of phase change material constant in each heat exchanger, the wall thickness is varied across test samples between 0.7 and 1.0 mm. After printing, each test coupon will then be tested with a low-speed air flow loop designed to mimic the volumetric flow rate of air in the heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning ducting systems. This study will measure the temperature and pressure upstream and downstream of the heat exchanger to measure how freestream air interacts with the heat exchanger. From experimentation, comparisons will be made thermally and through flow performance to determine how much heat can be exchanged between the air and the phase change material. Based on the measured metrics, conclusions will be drawn to determine how the wall thickness of these high surface area structures govern the effectiveness of the heat exchanger.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis - ERAU Login Required

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Mechanical Engineering

Year dc:date.available

2026

Author dc:creator

• Williams, Jared C.

• Heat Exchangers
• Phase Change Materials
• Thermal Energy Storage
• Convection
• Energy Systems
• Heat Transfer, Combustion

Repository record dc:identifier

https://commons.erau.edu/edt/970

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:commons.erau.edu:edt-2013