Fabrication and Thermal Performance Evaluation of Metastable Supercooled Liquid PCM Based Heat Pack

Metastable supercooled liquid phase change material (MSLPCM) is prepared by homogeneous mixing of sodium acetate trihydrate (SAT), water and ethylene glycol (EG) in 92:5:3 weight fractions, respectively. A stainless steel (SS-306) triggering disk of size 20 mm (L) × 18 mm (W) × 0.2 mm (T) is fabricated by engraving grooves on SS disk for initiating nucleation in heat pack and release of heat at the time of requirement. The PCM heat pack containing 300 g PCM and a triggering disk is fabricated using high frequency PVC sealing machine. Thermal performance of identical PCM heat pack and water pack (300 g water) is carried out inside temperature history measuring setup at 0 °C ambient temperature. The temperature of PCM heat pack and water heat pack reduces from 70 to 30 °C in 210 and 48 min, respectively at 0 °C ambient temperature. The heating time of PCM heat pack is ~4.4 times more compared to water heat packs.