A new model for analyzing laminar forced convective enhanced heat transfer in latent functionally thermal fluid

In this paper, a new model to analyze laminar forced convective enhanced heat transfer in latent function-ally thermal fluid is developed. The main characteristics of the model are: i) a new formula of the specific heat at con-stant pressure is used; ⅱ) a real heat transfer process is considered; that is, heat transfer processes occur not only between working fluid and microcapsules, but also between the mixture and tube wall; ⅲ) the new method, which com-bines the newly developed axisymmetrical dual reciprocity boundary element method (DRBEM) with finite difference method (FDM), is used to solve the control equations of this problem. The new model is validated by experimental data. Some new physical results on the variational characteristics of the specific heat at constant pressure with space and time during phase-change process, the time-marching history of the phase-change interfaces and so on are obtained. Several main physical factors that affect enhanced heat transfer in latent functionally thermal fluid are numerically analyzed. Some new understandings for the mechanism of enhanced heat transfer in the functionally fluid are obtained.