Study on the efficiency of effective thermal conductivities on melting characteristics of latent heat storage capsules

Shiina, Yasuaki; Inagaki, Terumi*

International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 48(2), p.373 - 383, 2005/01

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2004.07.043

Improvement of thermal conductivity of phase change medium would be one of the effective techniques to reduce phase change time in latent heat storage technology. Thermal conductivity would be improved by saturating phase change materials (PCM) in porous metals. Efficiency of effective thermal conductivity on melting time is studied by analyzing melting characteristics of a heat storage circular capsule where porous metal saturated by PCM is inserted. Results show that considerable reduction in melting time was obtained, especially for low conductivity PCMs and for high heat transfer coefficient. Trial estimation of optimum porosity was presented under the conditions of keeping high latent heat capacity and high reduction rate of melting time. Optimum porosity decreases with increase in heat transfer coefficient.