Latent Heat Storage in a Random Porosity Metal Foam Filled with a Phase Change Material

EasyChair Preprint no. 6637

Abstract

The aim of this work is to study the enhancement of a latent heat thermal energy storage system LHTESS using a phase change material PCM by integrating a solid structure (metal foam) of a high thermal conductivity inside the PCM.  The role of the metal foam is to increase the effective thermal conductivity to accelerate the storage process. The Metal foam is the porous structure and the PCM is the material that fills the pores. Most of previous works in the literature consider that the porosity is constant. Nonetheless, a random porosity is more realistic. In the present study a random porosity distribution between 0.4 and 1 will be considered. The volume-averaging technique and the Darcy-Brinkman model are adopted for the mathematical formulation.  The control-volume-based-finite element method VCEF is used to numerically solve the governing equations. A pseudo-random generation procedure was applied to generate different configurations of random structures. A comparison of the PCM melting (storage stage) in different samples of random porosity distributions will be made with a constant porosity.  Results will be presented in terms of isotherms, liquid-fraction and streamlines of the flow induced by natural convection in the liquid phase.

Keyphrases: Latent heat storage, Random porosity, Thermal conductivity enhancement

@Booklet{EasyChair:6637,
  author = {Mehdi Fteiti},
  title = {Latent Heat Storage in a Random Porosity Metal Foam Filled with a Phase Change Material},
  howpublished = {EasyChair Preprint no. 6637},

  year = {EasyChair, 2021}}