Experimental and numerical studies on melting process of phase change materials (PCMs) embedded in open-cells metal foams

Of the composite PCMs that regulate temperature in thermal energy storage, metal foam is a good candidate because of its high conductivity. This paper aims to characterize the behavior of composite PCMs through the dual experimental and numerical approach. The approach takes into consideration the natural convection of PCMs and the porosity character of metal foams which is constructed by quartet structure generation set (QSGS) method. The model uses the two-dimensional lattice Boltzmann method based on the enthalpy method. The effects of foam porosity and characterized numbers on the heat transfer process in porous structures are investigated. The numerical and experimental results exhibit good agreement. The results indicates that for higher porosities of metal foams, the PCMs proves to speed up the melting rate. The significance of heat con-duction in melting process of PCM in foam metal is observed. The approach adopted allows to highlight the behavior of the composite PCMs to better characterize its properties of heat-enhancement.

Automated summary

This study characterizes the behavior of composite PCMs using both experimental and numerical methods, focusing on the high conductivity of metal foam for thermal energy storage. Results show that higher porosities in metal foam can accelerate the melting rate of PCMs.