In this work, melting of a high-temperature inorganic phase change material (PCM) eutectic (with a melting point of 569 °C) within a vertical cylindrical tank has been experimentally investigated. To promote the heat transfer rate, a periodic structure that is constructed by a commercial SS-304 mesh screen has been considered and immersed into the PCM tank. Thermal characteristics of the PCM-periodic structure tank under different initial temperatures (450, 490 and 546 °C) and wall temperatures (620, 640, 660, 680 and 700 °C), are then investigated and reported. The presented experimental data can facilitate practical engineers to find the best operating condition of similar PCM tanks; meanwhile, it can be also employed for the investigation of thermal response of transient heat conduction before melting starts.

Thermal energy storage is increasingly needed in a sustainable world because of its potential of capturing waste heat and being incorporated in solar power plants. For power generation, in particular, as turbine technology advances, a demand for higher temperature thermal energy storage materials also grows. For this purpose, latent thermal energy storage fits in well since it uses phase change materials (PCMs) which generally have a higher energy density compared to their sensible heat counterparts. In the present study, a eutectic Na₂CO₃(41.69%)-(33.1%)KCl-(25.21%)NaCl phase change material (PCM) with a melting temperature of 569 ° C was chosen as the storage material to experimentally assess the performance benefit of using a readily available stainless steel (ss304) wire mesh (as the periodic structure) to enhance heat transfer within the domain. In addition, for discharging, a numerical model was developed and compared with the experimental results. Furthermore, for discharging, a numerical investigation of the influence of the heat transfer fluid (HTF) flow-rate to the rate of heat transfer was performed. Overall, it was experimentally observed that the charging time for the composite case was shortened by about 35%, compared to the pure PCM case. For discharging, in the axial direction, the composite solidification time when compared to the pure PCM case was on average 10% shorter. Regarding the radial discharging performance of the composite, there was only about 5% improvement compared to the pure PCM case, which was expected due to the thermal contact resistance in the radial direction. Discharging experimental results were used to validate a discharging numerical model. Discharging results from the model showed that increasing the flow rate of the heat transfer fluid (HTF) reduced the time for solidification. It was observed that for the HTF flow rate of 5 L/min, 10 L/min, 20 L/min and 30 L/min, the discharge time was shortened by 23%, 30%, 33% and 35%, respectively.

The use of metallic periodic structures was considered for melting rate enhancement of a phase change material (PCM) contained in a rectangular enclosure isothermally heated from the side. The critical (optimized) cell size, or pore size, of a periodic structure with fixed porosity, realising the shortest melting time by maximizing the convection and conduction heat transfer rate into the PCM, was studied. Furthermore, the effects of material properties (copper, aluminium, nickel, and stainless steel), enclosure length, wall-melting temperature difference and porosity were numerically investigated. It was observed that increasing porosity and/or reducing thermal conductivity enlarged the critical cell size (i.e. the optimal cell size that minimizes the melting time). The critical PPIs (pores per inch) of copper and aluminium periodic structures for all studied porosities were 10; for nickel, the critical values were 10 PPIs for porosity values of 0.75, 0.8 and 0.85 while it reduces to 5 PPI for the highest porosity considered here being 0.95. Interestingly, showing a different trend, the critical PPI of stainless-steel structures was 5 for the lowest porosity (0.75) and reduced to 3 for higher porosities. The results clearly demonstrated localised melting which was observed in all periodic structures except for the 10 PPI stainless-steel case. Scattered melting islands are observed as opposed to a moving interface when ϕ=(d_p/L)α_ligament/α_PCM>1. For such cases, localized melting occurs and the PCM is melted at the ligaments away from the heated wall before the melt front reaches those ligaments.