Effect of Binary Capsule Size Distribution on Unstructured Packed Bed Encapsulated PCM System

In the current circumstances, consistent innovation and improvement in energy storage systems is the need of the hour. In this work, the effect of binary size distribution of PCM capsules on the melting characteristics of encapsulated PCM systems is studied by developing a numerical model which resolves the geometry of the individual capsules in the packed bed. The encapsulated spheres containing PCM are distributed in a cubical domain by implementing an optimized dropping and rolling algorithm. This specific novelty is needed to address the issue of real time packing condition of the spheres inside a packed bed structure in which the spherical PCMs might not be organized in a structured way always. The unstructured packing is done by having spheres of two different sizes mixed together. The ratio of the size of spheres of two kinds is varied in order to study the effect of different kinds of binary distribution on the evolution of melting and the heat transfer characteristics.