Evaluation of Thermal Reliability and Compatibility Analysis for Solar PV Cooling Applications by Using Binary Eutectic Fatty Acid as PCMs

Abstract

The Lauric Acid (LA) and Palmitic Acid (PA) were used as an energy storage latent heat materials. The thermal reliability of two separate mixing ratios of binary eutectic fatty acid PCMs, with a number of thermal cycles were analyzed. Following 300,600,900 and 1200 thermal cycles, the PCM melting temperature and latent heat of fusion was determined using a Differential Scanning Calorimeter (DSC). The DSC results showed a relative percentage difference for melting temperature of PCM and latent heat of fusion was -0.64% and -2.89 at mixing ratio of 85LA:15PA, however -0.99% and -3.9% was attained at mixing ratio of 69LA:31PA. Corrosion test for encapsulation materials such as copper, aluminium and stainless steel are mostly used to store PCM. The required criteria for implementation of encapsulation materials in real-time applications are also evaluated. Thus, the result is that the mixing ratios of PCMs were thermally reliable for long term applications.