Heat transfer characteristics of ceramic foam/molten salt composite phase change material (CPCM) for medium-temperature thermal energy storage

Molten salts have been widely used as energy storage materials in medium- and high-temperature thermal storage. However, pure salt commonly suffers from low conductivity many conventional methods of heat transfer enhancement do not apply due to the serious corrosion extremely high temperature. In current study, open-cell SiC ceramic foam was integrated with solar (60wt% NaNO3 + 40wt% KNO3) enhance avoid severe issues. A visualised experiment for first time conducted investigate melting phase change foam/molten composite material (CPCM). representative elementary volume (REV)-scale simulation simultaneously performed computational results were compared experimental data. It is found that conduction-friendly skeleton remarkably enhances molten salt, especially region far away source. The spatial temperature difference across decreased both horizontal vertical directions local superheating mitigated. conduction greater than suppression natural convection; a result, rate CPCM increased by 41.3%. This study provides crucial benchmark data medium-temperature paves way system design optimization.