Behaviour of Thermodynamic Models with Phase Change Materials under Periodic Conditions

A. C. Sparavigna, S. Giurdanella, M. Patrucco

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DOI: 10.4236/epe.2011.32019                

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.

Keywords

Thermodynamics, Heat Exchange, Lumped Volume Models

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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