Solar thermal energy storage and heat pumps with phase change materials
Introduction
Latent heat storage systems are extensively studied in the past forty years. Currently, they are facing a revival with the introduction of new methods and promising materials to be implemented in rigorous branches of technological innovations. A review is approached here and focus in the built industry.
Solar radiation exploitation is confined by geographical variations, seasonal cycles, intensity oscillations and intermittent availability. Temporary energy storage for later use is a common method to overcome these variations and to match the energy demand and the supply of that resource in a controllable way. Fig. 1 depicts the solar thermal energy storage implementation and the three main different driving mechanisms respectively.
Heat is absorbed and released in materials by melting and crystallization in solids or vaporization and condensation in liquids. Lane [1] suggests and analyzes that three main stages are involved in the crystallization process during the phase transition of the material: induction or nucleation, crystal growth, and recrystallization or crystal regrowth. Recent developments suggest that solidification plays a major role in the dendrites formation as well as in other phase transitions, such as growth or melting Roh [2]. The shrinking solid affects the final geometrical shape and size and, therefore, the melting process while the phenomenon affects the time of the process as well [3].
Section snippets
Classification
The known classes of PCMs in terms of melting temperature and energy extend in a wide range [4]. Several reviews have been conducted [5], [6], [7] and a full classification of the latest advances in PCMs with their thermophysical properties can be found in the literature. Fig. 2 presents these developments, based on the above reviews, with polymeric and solid–solid PCMs included.
Indirect and direct effect on heat pumps energy consumption
Applications of thermal storage systems cover a wide range of modern industry and innovative applications. An extended research for a wide range of temperatures can be found in, but not limited to, industry [54], agriculture [55], [56], [57], cold storage and transportation [58], [59], textiles [60], [61], [62], vehicles [63], [64], electronics [65], batteries [66], biomedical [67], [68], [69], [70] and thermoelectric [71], [72].
Plentiful applications for thermal energy storage refer to their
Phase change models formulation
The problems associated with the complex behavior of PCMs derive from, the nonlinear motion on the solid–liquid interface. Indeed, the presence of buoyancy driven flows in the melt, the irreversibility of metastable zones, the non equilibrium phase, the conjugate heat transfer between PCM and the heat transfer fluid as well as the volume expansion makes the modeling of them a mathematically difficult process. Solidification and melting process explicit solutions are first proposed in early
Conclusions
Innovative applications impact the consumption of the buildings heat pumps within the vision of reaching to null or positive energy dwellings. The majority of building applications aimed to the thermal regulation between the ambient and the indoor environmental conditions through the charging and discharging process of the phase change materials.
Besides the thermal and optical properties, the combined research between the phase change materials and nanostructures, such as ionic, porous support
Acknowledgements
This work is part of the Ph.D. thesis of the corresponding author on leave from the National Technical University of Athens.
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