The application of phase change materials (PCMs) grew rapidly in the last few years, especially in those areas like solar energy, thermal comfort control, green building, environmental conservation and electronic cooling etc. Tremendous efforts have therefore been made on finding new powerful...

Theoretical investigations of fatty acids as a phase change material (PCM) for energy storage system have been conducted in this study. The selected fatty acids were capric acid, lauric acid, myristic acid, palmitic acid and stearic acid. For the two-dimensional simulation model based on the...

In this paper, 3-dimensional geometric models have been developed to evaluate the particle distribution effect on the thermal performance of a composite high conductivity laminated MEPCM board. For the purpose of comparison three geometric configurations (rectangular, triangular and pyramidal)...

This paper describes the experimental studies carried out to test thermal cycling of a real-scale PCM–air heat exchanger at ambient temperatures. To achieve this goal an experimental setup previously designed and used for testing real-scale prototypes of PCM–air heat exchangers is modified....

The current numerical study is conducted to analyze melting in a rectangular closed enclosure by subjecting the bottom wavy surface to a uniform temperature. The cavity vertical walls and the top wall are insulated while the bottom wall is maintained at temperature TB = 38.3 °C. The...

The possibility of using magnesium based eutectic metal alloys as phase change material (PCM) for thermal energy storage (TES) in concentrated solar power (CSP) applications is analysed. An extensive thermophysical characterization of the Mg–51%Zn eutectic metal alloy between room temperature...

Phase change materials (PCMs) can store large amounts of heat or cooling in a small amount of material, they potentially have less weight and volume compared with other thermal energy storage materials. Thermal energy storage applications such as solar hot water systems and off peak...

This paper describes a global analysis to determine the increase in annual energy output attained by a PV system with an integrated phase change material (PCM) layer. The PCM acts as a heat sink and limits the peak temperature of the PV cell thereby increasing efficiency. The simulation uses a...

The heat transfer through a vertical stack of rectangular cavities filled with phase change materials (PCMs) is experimentally analysed in terms of both melting and solidification processes. This paper provides data that are useful for benchmarking and validation of numerical models that account...