A Study on Phase Changes of Heterogeneous Composite Materials

Abstract

The present study is a basic investigation of the phase-change problem of a TES material consisting of a phase-change material (PCM) and conductive solids to promote the heat transfer rate. As the first step, experiments were carried out, using water containing coiled copper wires as the TES material. The phase-change process was investigated varying factors such as the volume ratio and the arrangement of the wires within the PCM. As a result, it was found that the phase-change rate of the TES material was increased considerably by the addition of the wires despite the small effects of the volume ratio and the arrangement. The heat transfer model of this TES material was proposed, and the numerical calculation was performed to simulate the phase-change process. The calculated results agreed well with the experimental results.