Studies in Ground Heat Transfer and Thermal Energy Storage Using Phase Change Material and Nanoparticles

The thesis begins with a literature review of phase change material (PCM) and heat transfer intensification methods. The challenges of using these methods are discussed, and the potential of adding nanoparticles as one of the heat transfer enhancement methods is explored thoroughly and presented. Also, the potential of implementing thermally enhanced latent heat thermal energy storage (TES) in a ground source heat pump (GSHP) system is presented. A detailed study has been carried out on developing an enhanced numerical approach to investigate the melting performance of nanoPCM (exfoliated graphene nanoplatelets (xGnP)octadecane) filled in a vertical cylindrical enclosure at different weight concentrations. The results showed that by adding 0.5wt% of xGnP in the base PCM (octadecane), the melting rate decreases by 9.7% and the heat storage rate increases by 12.6%.