Energy Conversion and Management 150 (2017) 148–158

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Energy Conversion and Management

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/enconman

A portable solar-powered air-cooling system based on phase-change MARK

materials for a vehicle cabin
⁎
Lingfei Qia, Hongye Pana, Xin Zhua, Xingtian Zhanga, Waleed Salmana, Zutao Zhanga, , Li Lia,
Miankuan Zhub, Yanping Yuana, Bo Xianga
a
School of Mechanical Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu 610031, PR China
b
School of Information Science & Technology, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu 610031, PR China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: In summer, the temperature is very high inside vehicles parked under the hot sun. This causes consuming more
Solar-assisted driven fossil energy to power the air conditioner and generation of harmful gases. There is currently no effective
Phase-change materials method to address this problem in an energy-saving and environmentally friendly manner. In this paper, a novel
Cooling system solar-powered air-cooling system for vehicle cabins is proposed based on Phase-change Materials (PCMs); the
Vehicle cabins
system prevents the temperature inside a vehicle cabin from rising too high when the vehicle is parked outdoor
Thermal simulation
exposure to the sun. The proposed system consists of three main parts: a solar-energy collection module, power-
storage module and phase-change cooling module. The solar panel converts solar energy into electricity, and the
power-storage module stores the electric energy in a supercapacitor that provides power for the phase-change
cooling module. Heat exchange between cabin ambient air and the PCMs is conducted in the cooling module to
generate cold air. The proposed system is demonstrated through thermal simulations, which show the long-
duration cooling effect of the system. Temperature drops of 30 °C were obtained in field tests, predicting that the
proposed cooling system is beneficial and practical for cooling vehicle cabins.

1. Introduction
The global energy crisis and environmental pollution have become
two major concerns in recent years. In particular, excessive consump-
tion of non-renewable energy and greenhouse gas emissions by tradi-
tional vehicles (TVs) are very serious. Electric vehicles (EVs) are be-
coming ever more popular and are considered to be the suitable
alternative for traditional fuel vehicles because of their energy-savings
and emissions reduction [1,2]. However, both TVs and EVs have a
common problem: high temperature inside a vehicle during exposure to
the sun when parked outdoor. High temperatures not only accelerate
aging of plastic materials and release harmful gases but also cause
consumption of additional fuel or electricity to power the air condi-
tioner [3]. For TVs, it is widely known that an air conditioner cannot
operate when the vehicle is in the flameout state. Although the air
conditioner can operate in EVs in the same situation, it will consume
excessive electric energy, which leads to a reduced vehicle range. These
conditions require energy-saving self-powered cooling with reduced
emissions.
In recent years, application of renewable energy such as mechanical
energy [4–6], phase-change latent heat energy [7–12], solar energy
[13–17], magnetic energy [18–20] and acoustic energy [21–23] have
been widely developed. In particular, some cooling technologies using
these renewable energy sources have emerged in many studies, such as
phase-change cooling, magnetic cooling, thermoacoustic cooling and
geothermally heated cooling technology. Though these cooling tech-
nologies have been widely discussed for various applications, there is
little research in applying these technologies to cool vehicle cabins ef-
fectively. Due to the higher availability, the solar energy and phase-
change latent heat are considered to use for cooling vehicle cabin in this
paper.
Phase-change cooling technology (PCCT) is an active research area
and has been widely investigated recently. The thermophysical per-
formances of various PCMs have been studied in previous literature.
Zakir Khan et al. [24] found that paraffins have wide ranges of phase
transition temperatures and no tendency toward supercooling and that
salt hydrates have a high latent heat of fusion and higher thermal
conductivity. Research on what types of PCMs are suitable for thermal
energy storage at low and medium temperatures was conducted by Jose
et al. [25]. They concluded that salt hydrates and organic compounds
possess better energy storage performance below 100 °C, and eutectic
mixtures are more promising 100–250 °C. These investigations provide

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: zzt@swjtu.edu.cn (Z. Zhang).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2017.07.067
Received 25 May 2017; Received in revised form 13 July 2017; Accepted 31 July 2017
0196-8904/ © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
L. Qi et al.
Fig. 1. Architecture of the solar-powered PCMs-based cooling system.
the reference basis for selecting the appropriate PCMs for energy sto-
rage systems (ESS) in various conditions. In general, PCMs have the
common characteristics of high latent heat and thermal inertia which
are crucial for ESS.
Based on their excellent thermal performance, PCMs used for
cooling system have been extensively discussed in many literature
works recently. Roberto et al. [8] described a novel method to enhance
the thermal performance of a refrigerated container by using PCMs. The
high reliability of the proposed solution was validated numerically and
experimentally. Sun et al. [11] developed a novel free-air cooling
system based on PCMs for cooling telecommunications base stations; it
proved to achieve lower space-cooling energy consumption through in-
situ tests in five different climatic regions. Anisur et al. [12] proposed a
tube latent-heat storage system for cooling air, and experimental results
showed that this system has a good cooling effect. Little research on
using PCMs for vehicle cabin cooling has been published [26–28]. Lan
and Sadrameli presented a PCMs-based vehicle roofing structure to
improve thermal resistance and keep the vehicle interior comfortable
[27,28]. It is well-known that phase-change cooling is passive cooling
which the cooling effect no better than active cooling. For enhancing
the cooling effect, active driven heat transfer fluid (HTF) should be
integrated to the PCCT. However it will consume extra energy to drive
the HTF if the traditional energy is employed. Renewable energy is
considered to power the HTF instead of traditional energy aiming to
energy-saving.
Compared to other renewable energy sources, solar energy is more
abundant, easier to acquire and cheaper. Solar is regarded as the best
potential alternative to traditional primary energy resources [29].
Solar-powered cooling technology (SPCT) has been widely developed to
reduce non-renewable energy consumption and greenhouse gas emis-
sions [13–17]. Annamaria et al. [13] conducted an experimental ana-
lysis and dynamic simulation for a high-temperature solar-driven
cooling system. From the aspects of technology and economy, the au-
thor demonstrated that prototypal solar cooling systems have promising
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Energy Conversion and Management 150 (2017) 148–158
application prospects. To enhance energy efficiency, investigations of
the utilization of combined multiple energy sources have been made.
Jiangjiang Wang and Ying Yang analysed the energy and exergy effi-
ciency and environmental benefit of utilizing biomass and solar energy
for a hybrid combined cooling, heating and power system [14]. The
study of solar refrigeration technology based on the adsorption prin-
ciple is very timely at present. Ibrahim et al. [15] researched the per-
formance of a solar-powered cooling system theoretically, based on the
principle of adsorption. The maximum cooling capacity of this system
approximated 14.8 kW and 15.8 kW in two different climate conditions
in the Middle East. To improve the coefficient of performance, a PCMs-
based heat-transfer-enhancement system integrated into a solar-pow-
ered absorption cooling system was investigated in [16]. Recent studies
of solar-powered cooling systems for vehicles are rare. Zhang et al. [17]
proposed a solar photovoltaic collector for a vehicle-mounted air con-
ditioner, however there is no experimental data to validate the cooling
effect of this system. In general, SPCT is of great importance in various
cooling fields.
Despite the successful applications of the SPCT and PCCT in various
areas particular to building space cooling, there has been hardly any
published work on integrating these two technologies and applying
them into vehicle cabins. In this paper, a novel solar-powered air-
cooling system based on PCMs for vehicle cabins is presented. A fold-
able mechanism for solar energy collection enables this system to
achieve portability and ease of installation. PCMs were considered as
the cooling medium because of their high latent heat and cleanliness.
The proposed cooling system can prevent the temperature inside a
vehicle cabin from rising too high when the vehicle is parked with
exposure to the sun. Therefore, energy consumption to power the air
conditioning and the production of harmful gases inside vehicle cabin
will be significantly reduced. Additionally, this cooling system can as-
sist the standard vehicle air conditioner when the vehicle is running to
achieve even greater energy savings and emissions reduction.
The remainder of this paper is structured as follows. In Section 2,
L. Qi et al. Energy Conversion and Management 150 (2017) 148–158

the system design is described. The modelling and analysis are devel-
oped in Section 3, including the output power of the solar collection
system, numerical processing of the phase-change latent heat, heat
exchange modelling of the serpentine tube and analysis of its simula-
tion; also, the modelling and simulation analysis of melting PCMs are
illustrated. In Section 4, experimental details of the preparation of
materials and experiment setup are described. The experimental results
and discussion are given in Section 5. Finally, the conclusion is pre-
sented in Section 6.

2. System design

The general architecture of the PCMs-based solar-powered cooling

system for vehicle cabins cooling is depicted in Fig. 1. The proposed
cooling system contains three main parts: a solar-energy collection
module, an energy-storage module and a phase-change cooling module.
The operating principle can be described as follows. For energy input,
the solar-energy-collection module harvests solar energy and converts it
to electricity. The power-storage module stores the electrical energy in
the supercapacitor to power the electrical equipment, mainly the air
pump (AP) and water pump (WP) of the phase-change cooling module.
Finally, the phase-change cooling module provides cold air for the ve-
hicle cabin to create a comfortable vehicle interior in a hot summer. A Fig. 3. Design and prototype of the solar collector: (a) 3D design (b) Prototype.
schematic diagram of the cabin cooling system is shown in Fig. 2.

2.2. Phase-change cooling module

2.1. Solar energy collection and storage module
Solar energy is considered to be clean, rich, and readily available
renewable energy; therefore, it is employed as the energy source for the
present cooling system. We propose a portable solar-energy collection
system that has been demonstrated to have good results experimentally.
The energy-collection and storage module includes four main parts: a
solar-collection mechanism, a wireless power-transmission system, a
controller and a supercapacitor. The solar collection mechanism can be
folded for portability and ease of installation as shown in Fig. 3. It is
worth noting that a key point of this module is the use of wireless power
transmission (WPT) technology, which has been shown to have sa-
tisfactory power transfer efficiency. The WPT technology can conduct
energy transfer without modifying the vehicle body. The function of the
controller is preventing over-charging and over-discharging of the su-
percapacitor. For details of the solar energy collection and storage
module, please refer to our previous study [3]. The electric-energy
transfer process part of the solar energy collection and storage module
is diagrammed in Fig. 4.
A 3D model of the phase-change cooling device is shown in
Fig. 5(a). This cooling device has three main components: a water tank,
a chamber containing PCMs and an air-pump chamber. Fig. 5(b) shows
the prototype of the cooling device. From the outside to the inside of
the PCMs chamber, it contains a thermal insulating layer, water storage
areas, sealing film and a PCMs layer as shown in Fig. 5(c); and the pipes
include an air pipe and a water pipe. The working process of the cooling
device has the following steps. First, the air pump, powered by the
proposed energy storage module, drives outside hot air into the PCMs
chamber at a certain velocity. Second, heat exchange between the hot
air and cold PCMs produces cold air that is applied to cool the vehicle
cabin. Third, at night, cold water stored in the water tank flows into the
PCMs chamber when the water valve is opened. The PCMs heat accu-
mulated during the day is absorbed by the water to cool the PCMs,
preparing for the next cabin-cooling cycle. After the PCMs are fully
cooled, the water pump pumps the hot water from the heat exchanger
back into the water tank. The hot water experiences natural cooling

Fig. 2. Schematic of the proposed solar-powered

cooling system based on PCMs for vehicle cabin.

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Fig. 4. Electric energy transfer process of the solar energy collection

and storage module.

Fig. 5. Design of the phase change cooling device.

from the metal heat sink at night. It is easily observed that the work 3. Modelling and analysis
cycle of this cooling module goes through three successive heat-transfer
steps in one day: (1) between the ambient air and the PCMs; (2) be- 3.1. Output power of solar collection system
tween the PCMs and the cold water; and (3) between the hot water and
the ambient air. That is, the proposed cooling system exploits the lower To estimate the output power of the proposed solar energy collec-
night-air temperature to cool warm air during the day. tion system, modelling and analysis that include the solar collector
To enhance the heat transfer, a serpentine tube shown in Fig. 5(d) mechanism, the sun position, the solar radiation power generation of
was adopted as an airflow pipe. Serpentine tube has been widely used the solar photovoltaic (PV) cell and wireless power transfer were re-
as technology product in many heat transfer areas because of its nu- ported in our previous research [3]. The solar collection system output
merous advantages of processing simple, processes mature, easy power (Pout ) can be obtained as follows:
cleaning and well-adapted [30]. The heat transfer coefficient is en-
hanced by the circulation effect in the turn-back areas of the serpentine η = η1 η2
⎧
tube. In addition, the tube possesses elasticity characteristics so as to ⎪ η1 = FF Isc Voc × 100%
⎪ Pin
mitigate thermal stress damage. The dimensions of the airflow pipe are: ω2RL
L = 250 mm;d = 10 mm;r = 12 mm ; the thickness of the pipe wall is ⎨ η2 = 2
2 (R + R ) + R1 (R2 + RL) d6
⎪ ω 2 L
A2
1.5 mm . ⎪
⎩ Pout = Pin η (1)

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Table 1 were made as follows:

Simulation assumption data.
(1) The heat-transfer fluid is uniform and incompressible, and its
Assumption parameters Value
physical property parameters remain constant.
Initialization method Standard (2) The heat transfer fluid has laminar flow and the fluid flow velocities
Calculation model κ−ε of the inlet and outlet both are constant.
Discretization of energy equation Second order upwind
(3) A X −Y two-dimensional model was adopted.
Discretization of momentum equation Second order upwind
Time step size (s) 1 (4) The effect of gravity on the fluid was ignored.
Maximum iteration/time step 20 (5) The thickness and thermal resistance of serpentine pipe wall was
Initial temperature of PCMs 298 K ignored.
Initial temperature of air 323 K/328 K/333 K (6) The wall temperature of the serpentine pipe is constant.

The equations of continuity, momentum and energy for the heat

where η, η1 and η2 are the total energy transfer efficiency, the wireless
exchange fluid can be simplified as follows:
power transfer system efficiency and the photoelectric conversion ef-
Continuity equation:
ficiency of the PV cell, respectively. FF , Isc , Voc and Pin are the Fill Factor
(0.75 ∼ 0.8), short-circuit current, open-circuit voltage and input ∂uf ∂vf
+ =0
power of the PV cell, respectively. R1, R2 , RL , ω , A and d are, respec- ∂x ∂y (8)
tively, the internal resistance of the transmitting coil, internal re-
sistance of the receiving coil, load resistance, solar hour angle (°), ideal Momentum equation:
performance coefficient of the diode and the distance between the ∂ (ρf uf ) ∂ (ρf uf uf ) ∂ (ρf uf vf ) ∂ ⎛ ∂uf ⎞ ∂ ⎛ ∂uf ⎞ ∂P
transmitting coil and receiving coil. + + = μ
⎜ + ⎟ μ − ⎜ ⎟
∂t ∂x ∂y ∂x ⎝ f ∂x ⎠ ∂y ⎝ f ∂y ⎠ ∂x
(9)
3.2. Numerical processing of phase-change latent heat
∂ (ρf vf ) ∂ (ρf uf vf ) ∂ (ρf vf vf ) ∂ ⎛ ∂vf ⎞ ∂ ⎛ ∂uf ⎞ ∂P
The enthalpy method was used to analyse the process of phase- + + = ⎜ μ +⎟ μ −
⎜ ⎟
∂t ∂x ∂y ∂x ⎝ f ∂x ⎠ ∂y ⎝ f ∂y ⎠ ∂y
change heat transfer (PCHT). In this PCHT system, the total enthalpy
(H ), composed of the sensible enthalpy (Hs ) and latent heat (Hl ), can be (10)
described as: Energy equation:
H = Hs + Hl (2) ∂ (ρf cf Tf ) ∂ (ρf cf uTf ) ∂ (ρf cf vTf ) ∂ ⎛ ∂Tf ⎞ ∂ ⎛ ∂Tf ⎞
+ + = ⎜kf + ⎟ kf ⎜ ⎟

where Hs can be expressed as: ∂t ∂x ∂y ∂x ⎝ ∂x ⎠ ∂y ⎝ ∂y ⎠

T (11)
Hs = ∫T0
cp (T ) dT
(3) The simulation of this mathematical thermal model was executed by
in which cp is the specific heat. The latent heat (Hl ) is a function of Fluent software; the relevant simulation assumption data are listed in
temperature: Table 1. The boundary conditions and initial conditions were as fol-
lows: The temperature of pipe wall was equal to the PCMs initial
Hl = F (T ) (4) temperature of 298 K , and the initial inlet air temperatures were
When the temperature of the phase change is a range, Eq. (3) can be 323 K/328 K/333 K , as shown in Table 1.
expressed as The contours of the temperature distribution inside the serpentine
pipe with an inlet air flow velocity of 0.5 m/s and inlet air temperature
⎧ hf ,T ⩾ Tliq of 328 K are shown at three times in Fig. 6(a) –(c). From these contours
F (T ) = hf (1−fs ),Tliq > T > Tsol of temperature distribution, it is easy to obtain that the low temperature
⎨
state (below 305 K is considered the low temperature state) of outlet air
⎩ 0,T ⩽ Tsol (5)
can last for approximately 28 h . The velocity distribution inside the pipe
where hf and fs are the latent heat of fusion and the solid-phase frac- with inlet air flow velocities of 0.5 m/s and 1 m/s are depicted in Fig. 7
tion, respectively. Tliq and Tsol are the liquidus and solidus temperatures, at the same moment. The airflow velocities in the turn-back areas are
respectively. When the phase change temperature is constant, Eq. (3) larger than elsewhere, as can be observed in both contours. This result
can be expressed by confirms the previous conclusion that secondary circulation exists in
hf ,T > Tm the turn-back area.
F (T ) = ⎧
⎨
⎩ 0,T < Tm (6)
3.4. PCMs melting model and simulation analysis
where Tm is the melting temperature of isothermal solidification.
The energy equation is described in the following form: To simplify the model of PCMs melting, natural convection was not
considered. Further assumptions were made as follows:
∂h
ρ = ∇ ·(κ∇T )
∂t (7)
(1) The heat transfer effect along the Z axis was not considered and an
In essence, the solution iterates between Eqs. (4) and (6), where ρ , κ X −Y two-dimensional model was adopted.
and T are the density, thermal conductivity and temperature, respec- (2) The gravitational acceleration is 9.81 m/s2 .
tively. (3) The wall of the heat storage tank is thermal insulation material.
(4) The PCMs are isotropic materials.
3.3. Heat exchange model of serpentine pipe and simulation analysis (5) Volume change of PCMs during phase change is ignored.

To obtain the air temperature difference between the inlet and With these five assumptions, the two-dimensional governing equa-
outlet of the serpentine pipe, a mathematic model of heat exchange was tion can be divided into a continuity equation, a momentum equation
developed. To simplify the heat exchange model, some assumptions and an energy equation.

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(a) time=21700s (b) time=61700s

(c) time=101700s
Fig. 6. Temperature distribution inside the serpentine air pipe.

∂ (ρp up) ∂ (ρp up up) ∂ (ρp up vp) ∂ ⎛ ∂up ⎞ ∂ ⎛ ∂up ⎞ ∂P

+ + = μ⎜ +⎟ μ ⎜ − ⎟
∂t ∂x ∂y ∂x ⎝ p ∂x ⎠ ∂y ⎝ p ∂y ⎠ ∂x
+ As up (13)

∂ (ρp vp) ∂ (ρp up vp) ∂ (ρp vp vp) ∂ ⎛ ∂vp ⎞ ∂ ⎛ ∂vp ⎞ ∂P

+ + = ⎜ μ ⎟ + μ
⎜ −⎟
∂t ∂x ∂y ∂x ⎝ p ∂x ⎠ ∂y ⎝ p ∂y ⎠ ∂y
−ρp gβ (Tp−Tm) + AS vp (14)

The energy equation:

∂ (ρp hp) ∂ (ρp up hp) ∂ (ρp vp hp) ∂ ⎛ ∂Tp ⎞ ∂ ⎛ ∂Tp ⎞
+ + = ⎜kp + ⎟ kp ⎜ ⎟
∂t ∂x ∂y ∂x ⎝ ∂x ⎠ ∂y ⎝ ∂y ⎠ (15)

The thermal simulation for this mathematic model was developed in

Fluent software. The boundary conditions and initial conditions are
described as: the wall of the heat storage tank is adiabatic,
∂T ∂T
∂x
= 0, ∂x = 0 ; the temperature of the entire volume of PCMs is uniform
and its initial value was 298 K , as shown in Table 1.
The distribution contours of liquid in the melting process of PCMs
with an inlet air temperature of 328 K and flow velocity of 0.5 m/s are
shown in Fig. 8(a)–(c). From Fig. 8, it can be observed that the PCMs
has not melted completely after approximately 28 h (101,700 s) of heat
transfer. The results demonstrate that the proposed PCMs has excellent
heat storage performance. These figures display the common phenom-
enon that the PCMs melts faster around the air pipe bend areas that
have secondary circulation than in other areas. This shows that sec-
ondary circulation plays a positive role in enhancing heat transfer.
Fig. 7. Velocity distribution inside the serpentine pipe.

4. Experimental details
The continuity equation:
4.1. Preparation of phase-change materials
∂up ∂vp
+ =0
∂x ∂y (12)
Previous literature reports that PCMs generally have a high latent
heat and thermal inertia. Compared to organic PCMs, inorganic PCMs
The momentum equation:
have the advantages of high heat conductivity and latent heat and

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Fig. 8. Liquid distribution of the PCMs.

Table 2
Thermophysical properties of various salt hydrates.

Compound Tm ΔHm CPs CPl λs λl ρS Vexp Edensity

°C kJ/kg kJ/kg K W/mK kg/m3 m3/m3 kWh/m3

Water 0 333 3.30 4.18 1.60 0.61 920 −8.7 109

Calcium chloride hexahydrate 30 125 1.42 2.20 1.09 0.53 1710 11 64
Sodium sulphate decahydrate 32 180 1.93 2.80 0.56 0.45 1485 4 82
Sodium thiosulfate pentahydrate 46 210 1.46 2.39 0.76 0.38 1666 6 103
Sodium acetate trihydrate 58 166 1.68 2.37 0.43 0.34 1450 3 113

therefore were selected as the energy storage materials for this work.
The thermophysical properties of various salt hydrates are listed in
Table 2. Sodium sulphate decahydrate was the best candidate for the
energy storage medium after considering the various factors: phase-
transition temperature, latent heat and thermal conductivity. Sodium
sulphate decahydrate has the following characteristics: its thermal
conductivities are 0.56 W/mK and 0.45 W/mK as a solid and liquid re-
spectively, its melting point is approximately 32 °C and its latent heat
capacity is 180 kJ/kg . In addition, the material has the merits of low
density, good chemical stability, low cost, etc. On the other hand, ser-
ious supercooling and phase segregation of inorganic PCMs are two
critical issues that need addressing. Previous research has shown that
the supercooling of sodium sulphate decahydrate can be weakened by
adding borax, and the phase segregation can be partly prevented by
adding sodium hexametaphosphate. Therefore, sodium sulphate dec-
ahydrate integrated with borax and sodium hexametaphosphate was
prepared as the heat transfer medium and packaged hermetically.
4.2. Experimental setup
The experiment setup consisted of two parts, one to evaluate the
performance of the solar energy collection and the other to estimate the
cooling effect of the cooling system. The solar energy collection ex-
periment is shown in Fig. 9(a), which comprises the solar energy col-
lection system, a data recorder, a pyranometer, a multimeter, the
wireless power transmission coil, the load resistance and the solar si-
mulator. The experimental installation, experiment conditions and ex-
perimental environment have been described in detail in Ref. [3]. The
cooling experiment is shown in Fig. 9(b) and (c). A full-size prototype of
the proposed air cooling system was manufactured for the experiment
and contains the necessary components: air pump, air pipe and PCMs.
Based on the weather in Chengdu, the maximum temperature can be up
to 60 °C inside cabins of the vehicles parked with summer sun exposure
and the average temperature is about 55 °C . To obtain more accurate
estimate of the air-cooling system’s cooling performance, we set the
three inlet air temperatures of 60 °C, 55 °C and 50 °C which is con-
sidered as reference temperature in the experiments. Fig. 9(c) shows
that the outlet temperature of the prototype was measured with the
inlet temperature at 55 °C to evaluate the cooling effect. To evaluate the
cooling effect for a vehicle cabin, the proposed prototype was installed
in a laboratory vehicle with an air heater to heat the cabin air as shown
in Fig. 9(b). The vehicle cabin temperature was measured in the two
cases: (i) with only the heater on; (ii) with both the heater and PCM
cooling device on. For these experiments, we set the air inlet velocity to

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L. Qi et al.
1m/s , which the above simulation analysis showed is a suitable flow
rate.
5. Results and discussion
The power and efficiency results of the solar energy collection
system have been discussed in detail in our previous research [3]. When
the load resistance were respectively 5 Ω and 3 Ω, a peak efficiency of
WPT of 60.3% and a peak output power of 2.181 W could be generated
from the solar energy collection system. If the area of the PV panels of
this proposed system were larger, more power can be output to satisfy
the high-power load. This indicates that the proposed solar collection
system is effective and feasible for the cooling device.
For analysing the cooling at the three inlet air temperatures, the
inlet air flow velocity 0.5 m/s was used for simulation approaches.
Fig. 10 shows the variation of the outlet air temperature of the ser-
pentine tube for different inlet air temperatures, viz. 50 °C , 55 °C and
60 °C. From Fig. 10, we note that the higher the inlet temperature, the
less time that the low outlet temperature will last. Nonetheless, even for
an inlet temperature of 60 °C, the outlet air temperature can be main-
tained below 32 °C for approximately 24 h (87,800 s), which is suffi-
cient to cool the vehicle cabin for one day. Thus, the simulation predicts
that the proposed air cooling system has a good cooling effect. The
cooling effect at different air flow velocities was estimated with an inlet
Inlet temperature of 50
Inlet temperature of 55
Inlet temperature of 60
32
31
30 120500
29 101600
28
87800
27
26
25
0 20000 40000 60000 80000 100000 120000 140000
Time(s)
Fig. 10. Outlet air temperature various in the condition of inlet air velocity of 0.5 m/s .
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Energy Conversion and Management 150 (2017) 148–158
Fig. 9. Experiments of the solar powered PCMs-based air
cooling system: (a) solar energy collection, (b) PCMs cooling
device for cooling air, (c) PCMs cooling device for cooling
vehicle cabin.
Inlet air flow velocity of 0.5m/s
Inlet air flow velocity of 1m/s
32
31
30
29
101600
28
27
30700
26
25
0 20000 40000 60000 80000 100000 120000
Time(s)
Fig. 11. Outlet air temperature various in the condition of inlet air temperature of 55 °C .
air temperature of 55 °C . The outlet air temperature variations for air
flow velocities of 0.5 m/s and 1 m/s are plotted in Fig. 11. The result
shows that an outlet air temperature below 32 °C can last approxi-
mately 28 h (101,600 s) and 8.5 h (30,700 s), respectively, for these
two flow velocities. It can be predicted that the faster the air flow, the
sooner the outlet temperature rises and the shorter the time the outlet
can be kept at a low temperature.
The PCMs melting rates for different inlet air temperatures and
different inlet air velocities are shown in Fig. 12(a) and (b), respec-
tively. Fig. 12(a) demonstrates that the higher the inlet temperature,
the faster the PCMs melt. When the heat exchange time was approxi-
mately 27.8 h (100,000 s), the melting rate was 0.54, 0.62 and 0.7 for
inlet air temperatures of 50 °C , 55 °C and 60 °C, respectively, at an air
flow velocity of 0.5 m/s . This indirectly illustrates that the PCMs have
high latent heat. Fig. 12(b) shows the PCMs melting rate for different
inlet air velocities; the results indicate that the higher the air flow rate,
the faster the PCMs melt.
With a higher flow rate of air and faster PCMs melting, the outlet air
will not remain at low temperature as long; the amount of cold pro-
vided by the proposed system remains almost constant for the same
initial temperature and quantity of PCMs. That is, the cold consumption
rate of the cooling system varies, but the total consumption of cold is
constant. It has been estimated that the vehicle may be parked in the
sun for approximately 8 h a day in summer. To provide as much as
L. Qi et al. Energy Conversion and Management 150 (2017) 148–158

Inlet air temperature of 50 Inlet air flow velocity of 0.5m/s

Inlet air temperature of 55 Inlet air flow velocity of 1m/s
Inlet air temperature of 60 0.6
0.8
0.5

PCM melting rate

PCM melting rate 0.7
0.6 0.62
0.54 0.4
0.5
0.4 0.3
0.3 0.2
0.2
0.1 0.1
0 0
0 20000 40000 60000 80000 100000 0 10000 20000 30000 40000
Time(s) Time(s)
(a) (b)
Fig. 12. PCMs melting rate at different inlet air temperature and different inlet air velocities: (a) PCMs melting rate at different inlet air temperatures at the inlet air velocity of 0.5 m/s;
(b) PCMs melting rate at different inlet air velocities at the inlet air temperature of 55 °C.

(a)
Inlet temperature of 50
Inlet temperature of 55
Inlet temperature of 60
Initial temperature of PCM is 22.7
Initial temperature of PCM is 25.1 25.8
Initial temperature of PCM is 26.1 25.6
27
25.4
26.5
Temperature

26 25.2
25.5 25
25 24.8
Temperature

24.5
24.6
24
0 2 4 6
23.5 8 10 12 14
16 18 20 22 24
23 26 28 30 32
34 36 38 40
22.5 Time min
22
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 (c)
Time˄min˅
(b)
Fig. 13. Experimental results for the prototype: (a) Outlet air temperature variations for simulation and experiment; (b) Outlet air temperature various at three different initial tem-
peratures of PCMs; (c) Outlet air temperature various at three different inlet temperatures.

possible of the cold stored in the PCMs to the vehicle cabin, an ap-
propriately higher flow rate of inlet air can be used.
Experiments to evaluate the cooling effect of the proposed air
cooling device have been conducted as shown in Fig. 13. An inlet air
flow velocity of 1 m/s was used for the experiment. Fig. 13(a) presents
the simulated and experimental outlet air temperature variations for an
inlet air temperature of 55 °C and initial PCMs temperature of ap-
proximately25 °C . The results show the good agreement between the
simulated outlet air temperature and the experimental data. The data
are just slightly higher than the simulation, mainly due to the thermal
resistance of the air pipe, which is ignored in the simulation. A tem-
perature drop of approximately 30 °C can be obtained between the inlet
and outlet of the cooling device over the experiment, indicating that the
cooling effect is excellent. The variations of the outlet air temperature
for three different initial PCMs temperatures for the same 55 °C inlet air
temperature are compared in Fig. 13(b). The result shows that the lower
the initial PCMs temperature, the lower the outlet temperature. This
demonstrates that the cooling can be improved by reducing the initial
PCMs temperature. Fig. 13(c) shows the experimental outlet tempera-
ture variations for three different inlet temperatures for the same PCMs
initial temperature. It is observed that for different inlet air tempera-
tures the outlet is almost identical; all have a slow rising trend with
slight fluctuations. Based on this observation, it can be observed that
the higher inlet air temperature, the better the coefficient of perfor-
mance. Comparing Fig. 13(b) and (c), we note that the outlet tem-
perature is mainly determined by the initial PCMs temperature.
Based on the above experimental results, both the cooling perfor-
mance of the PCMs and the whole air-cooling system can be evaluated.

156
L. Qi et al. Energy Conversion and Management 150 (2017) 148–158

Inlet temperature of 50
Inlet temperature of 55
Inlet temperature of 60
1
Instantaneous effectiveness(İ)

0.995

0.99

0.985

0.98

0.975

0.97
0 10 20 30 40
Time (min)
Fig. 14. The instantaneous effectiveness of PCMs over the phase change period.

In the proposed system, the sensible energy is too small and can be
ignored because of a small temperature variation during the PCMs
melting and freezing processes. According to the previous literature
[31], the instantaneous effectiveness during the phase change period
can be calculated by
ε = (Tin−Tout )/(Tin−TPCMs )
where the ε is the instantaneous effectiveness. The Tin , Tout and TPCMs are
respectively the inlet air temperature, the outlet air temperature and
the PCMs temperature. Eq. (16) demonstrates that the instantaneous
effectiveness will reach the maximum when the outlet air temperature
is the same as the PCMs temperature. At the same PCMs temperature of
25 °C , the calculation results of the instantaneous effectiveness under
the three inlet air temperatures are shown in Fig. 14. From Fig. 14, it
can be observed that the instantaneous effectiveness keep a slightly
downward trend over the time, but the values keep high in 40 min.
Moreover, the average effectiveness over the phase change process can
be given by
t the cooling system has a good air-cooling effect and possesses a sig-
ε= ∫0 εdt
where the ε is the average effectiveness. When the inlet air tempera-
tures are 50 °C , 55 °C and 60 °C, the calculated value of the ε are re-
spectively up to 0.987, 0.987 and 0.988 in 40 min. Therefore, it in-
dicates the cooling performance of the PCMs is superior.
Moreover, the energy ffficiency ratio (EER) can be described as
follows:
EER = Qc / Pc
where the Qc and Pc are respectively the cooling capacity and the power
consumption of air pump. And the Qc can be expressed as:
Vc ·ΔTc
Qc =
0.86tc
where Vc , ΔTc and tc are respectively the volume of the cooling space,
temperature drop and the time of cooling. Furthermore, we assume that
the temperature of cooling space will drop down to Tout after a long
enough time, the relation between the Tout and ΔTc can be written as:
ΔTc = Ts−Tout
where the Ts is the initial temperature of the cooling space. So the in-
stantaneous EER can be obtained by iterating between Eqs. (16) and
(20).
Vc ·[Ts + ε (Tin−TPCM )−Tin]
EER =
0.86tc ·Pc
And the average EER (EER ) can be expressed as:
Fig. 15. Application of the solar-powered air cooling system based on PCMs for vehicle
cabin.
(16) t Vc ·[Ts + ε (Tin−TPCM )−Tin]
t
EER = ∫0 EERdt = ∫0 0.86tc ·Pc
dt
V ·(T −T ) V ·(T −T )
= c in PCM ε + c s in
0.86tc ·Pc 0.86·Pc (22)
According to Eqs. (20) and (21), we can obtain that not only in a
linear relationship between the EER and ε , but also between the EER
and ε . Based on the above analysis, it indicates that the cooling per-
formance of PCMs decide the cooling efficiency of the whole air-cooling
system directly.
In addition, the experimental result of applying the proposed
cooling device to a laboratory vehicle is that the temperature inside the
cabin was lower in case one than in case two. All the results predict that
(17) nificant positive role for vehicle cabin cooling.
As shown in Fig. 15, the air cooling device was installed in the
vehicle and the solar energy collection mechanism was installed on the
roof when the vehicle was parked under hot sun. The solar collection
mechanism collected energy and applied power to the cooling device.
The device worked and provided cooling for the vehicle cabin, pre-
venting the temperature from rising too high and reducing the energy
consumption to power the air conditioning and create a comfortable
(18) cabin environment. Fig. 16 shows the installation of the solar-powered
PCMs-based air cooling system for vehicle cabin.
6. Conclusion
(19)
This paper proposes a portable solar-powered air cooling system for
a vehicle cabin based on Phase-change Materials. The proposed system
includes a solar energy collection mechanism, wireless energy trans-
mission and PCMs cooling device. A peak output power of 2.181 W was
generated by the solar energy collection system. This may be sufficient
(20) power for the air cooling device if the area of the PV panels of the solar
collection system is increased. The simulation results show that the low
outlet air temperature (below 32 °C ) is long-lasting. The experimental
data validate the simulation results and show that a temperature drop
of 30 °C between the inlet and outlet air can be obtained. The outlet air
temperature is mainly determined by the PCMs initial temperature and
is almost unaffected by the inlet air temperature. A better COP can be
(21)
obtained for higher inlet air temperature or a lower initial PCMs tem-
perature. Furthermore, the results of an experiment with a laboratory

157
L. Qi et al.
vehicle demonstrate that the proposed cooling device can play an im-
portant role in restraining the temperature rise inside a vehicle cabin. It
can be concluded that the proposed cooling device is effective and
significantly beneficial for cooling a vehicle cabin. Additionally, this
system can supplement air conditioning to cool the cabin when the
vehicle is running to reduce energy consumption and pollution emis-
sions.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China under Grant No. 51675451, by the Science and
Technology Projects of Sichuan and Chengdu under Grant Nos.
2016GZ0026, 2017RZ0056 and 2015-HM01-00338-SF, and by the
Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities under Grant
No. 2682016ZDPY03. The first three authors contributed equally to this
work. The asterisk indicates the author to whom all correspondence
should be directed.
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