Experimental and numerical investigation of a phase change energy storage system

Latent heat storage systems are an effective way of storing thermal energy. Recently, phase change materials were considered also in the thermal control of compact electronic devices. In the present work a numerical and experimental investigation is presented for a solid-liquid phase change process dominated by heat conduction. In the experimental arrangement a plane slab of PCM is heated from above with an on-off thermal power simulating the behaviour of an electronic device. A two-dimensional finite volume code is used for the solution of the corresponding mathematical model. The comparison between numerical predictions and experimental data shows a good agreement. Finally, in order to characterize this thermal energy storage system, the time distribution of latent and sensible heat is analyzed.