TITLE:
Behaviour of Thermodynamic Models with Phase Change Materials under Periodic Conditions
AUTHORS:
A. C. Sparavigna, S. Giurdanella, M. Patrucco
KEYWORDS:
Thermodynamics, Heat Exchange, Lumped Volume Models
JOURNAL NAME:
Energy and Power Engineering,
Vol.3 No.2,
May
18,
2011
ABSTRACT: We study the thermal behaviour of some models in a steady periodic regime. The aim is to simulate the be-haviour of small environments at the outermost part of our planet, subjected to the periodic solar radiation. Our approach is based on a method using lumped elements or volumes that simplifies the description of spa-tially distributed physical systems, through a topology consisting of discrete entities. Our models include some parts acting as energy storage systems, made with Phase Change Materials (PCMs). The storage is based on latent heats: the energy is stored during the melting and recovered during the solidification of the PCM substance. The simulation with lumped elements shows some interesting behaviours of temperatures.