Investigating the mass transfer of phase change materials during melting and freezing processes with the aim of energy optimization

Hasanifar, Hamid; Khoshbin, Ali; Bolandakhtar, Zahra; Rezaei, Shaghayegh; Babapoor, Aziz

doi:10.22034/jrenew.2025.218160

Investigating the mass transfer of phase change materials during melting and freezing processes with the aim of energy optimization

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

hamid hasanifar ¹

ali khoshbin ²

zahra bolandakhtar ²

shaghayegh rezaei ²

aziz babapoor ²

¹ Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Mohaghegh Ardabili, Ardabil, Iran,

² Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Mohaghegh Ardabili, Ardabil, Iran

https://doi.org/10.22034/jrenew.2025.218160

Abstract

Phase change materials (PCM) have the ability to store energy as latent energy by changing phase and provide the stored energy at the desired time when they return to their original phase. The use of infrared monitoring system showed that increasing the concentration of copper/paraffin increases the melting speed and reduces the melting time, which is due to the higher thermal conductivity and lower latent heat of copper/paraffin, which causes higher thermal storage. In the freezing process, the liquid material turns into a semi-liquid, paste and then into a solid. Investigations showed that increasing the concentration of copper/paraffin increases the freezing speed and adding copper nanoparticles to the base fluid improves thermal conductivity and freezing speed. The temperature profiles of myristic acid and composite phase change materials showed that as the freezing process progresses, the temperature of these materials decreases more than myristic acid. Also, phase change materials can change from solid to liquid, solid to solid, and solid to gas. , where solid-to-liquid transition is preferred for thermal energy storage. Increasing the energy storage density reduces the volume, and latent heat storage is an effective way to store thermal energy due to the high density of energy storage and its isothermal nature.

Keywords

Renewable energies

Phase change materials

Mass transfer

Melting

Solidification

Subjects

Renewable Energy

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