Many passive heat controlling technologies are based on the use of phase change materials. As a rule, at low operation temperatures, close to environmental conditions, paraffins or fatty acids with melting points of 20-90 °C are used. However, the low thermal conductivity of these materials requires the development of various heat transfer enhancers satisfying technical requirements. In this work, the possibility of nanoparticle application to the heat transfer augmentation inside a closed copper radiator filled with pure n-octadecane, depending on the thermal conditions of the local heater and other system parameters, are numerically investigated.
Keywords: heat-generating element; nanoparticles; natural convection; phase change material.