Modeling hysteresis in the phase transition of industrial-grade solid/liquid PCM for thermal energy storages

摘要

Latent heat storages using phase change materials (PCM) ideally store and release heat at an almost constant, unique temperature. However, most in-dus-tri-al-grade solid/liquid PCM melt and solidify over a temperature range in which both phases coexist, and hysteresis in the phase transition sometimes significantly increases this non-ideal behavior. Models which can reproduce non-ideal phase transitions are crucial for the numerical analysis of the charging and discharging of latent heat storages. Not only the PCM thermophysical properties strongly change during phase transition, but also the heat transfer critically depends on melting and solidification temperatures.