Experimental and numerical simulation study of a PCM melting process without convective flows

Abstract

Latent heat thermal energy storage (LHTES) is a mechanism of thermal energy storage (TES) that aims to improve the efficiency of these systems by the use of phase change materials (PCMs). During the melting process (charging), the LHTTES system stores energy that can be retrieved in the solidification processes (discharge). These new systems achieve higher energy density because they can store the latent heat of a phase change in the same temperature range where another substance would only store energy in the form of sensible heat. In addition, the use of PCMs increases the thermal inertia of the system, as the phase change processes of pure substances are isothermal. The use of PCMs for thermal regulation is being applied in several applications: Heating and Domestic Hot Water (DHW) [1,2], production and building air cooling and heating circuits [3,4], thermal regulation of photovoltaic systems (PV-PCM) [5], among other applications [6,7].