As a new functional thermal fluid

microencapsulated phase change material slurry (MEPCMS) has development potential in thermal management and other fields. In this study

the discrete phase model (DPM) was used to investigate the heat transfer characteristics of MEPCMS in a horizontal rectangular minichannel under nonuniform heat flux conditions. The results show that the heat transfer can be enhanced by the phase change of particles in the slurry

and the slurry can reduce the wall temperature rise by 8.79% and the fluid temperature rise by 15.14% at a heat flux distribution of 9–5–5 W/cm2

inlet velocity of 0.40 m/s

and mass fraction of 10%. Thermophoretic force causes the particles to migrate to the low-temperature region during the flow. Compared with the uniform heat flux condition

the region and magnitude of the local heat flux affect the heat transfer characteristics in this and later regions. As the inlet velocity and particle mass fraction increase

the cooling effect of the fluid on the wall improves. However

the pressure drop also increases owing to the influence of the streamwise resistance and two-phase interaction.