Chapters authored
Experimental and Numerical Studies on Phase Change Materials
Phase change materials (PCMs) are attracting significant attentions in research and application, categorized into mainly three types, that is, organic (O), inorganic (IO) and eutectic (E). This section introduces the experimental and numerical investigations conducted in recent decades, mainly focused on the properties enhancement of PCMs and the performance improvement of its application in latent heat storage (LHS) units, as well as the evaluation and optimization of LHS units. It was concluded that lots of contribution have been made to PCMs and LHS units analysis. However, there is still some weakness in research, such as the lackness of detailed and systematic research on properties, the non-uniform standard on testing method as well as the contradictory conclusions. The most evaluation of LHS units is based on energy, instead of exergy, entropy and entransy. There is another issue that most of the research is based on numerical analysis, while less experimental research is conducted, especially in the case of LHS unit.
Part of the book: Phase Change Materials and Their Applications