Karaaslan İ., Öztaşkın F. B., Menlik T.
JOURNAL OF POLYTECHNIC-POLITEKNIK DERGISI, cilt.29, sa.4, ss.1-12, 2026 (ESCI)
Özet
This study numerically investigated the melting behavior of pure paraffin (RT58) and nanoparticle-enhanced phase change materials (PCMs) containing 4 vol.% GNP, 4 vol.% NiFe2O4, and a hybrid mixture consisting of 2 vol.% graphene (GNP) and 2 vol.% nickel ferrite (NiFe2O4). GNP, which has been widely recognized for its superior heat transfer characteristics, was selected as a benchmark additive, whereas NiFe2O4 was investigated as a potential alternative nanoparticle for enhancing the thermal performance of latent heat storage systems.Two-dimensional transient simulations were performed using the enthalpy-porosity method implemented in ANSYS Fluent 18.2. The influence of wall temperature and nanoparticle type on melting characteristics was analyzed. Increasing the wall temperature from 360 K to 370 K reduced the melting time of pure paraffin by 65.7%. Based on these results, a wall temperature of 365 K was selected as the reference condition for nanoparticle comparisons. Relative to pure paraffin, the melting time decreased by 38.1%, 48.6%, and 63.8% for GNP-, hybrid-, and NiFe2O4-enhanced PCMs, respectively. Furthermore, the hybrid PCM outperformed the GNP-enhanced PCM by 16.9%, whereas the NiFe2O4-enhanced PCM provided a 41.5% shorter melting duration than the GNP-enhanced PCM.