Investigations on synchronous heat transfer of composite phase change material in multi cavities

With the global energy crisis and the urgent demand to reduce carbon emissions, renewable energy and energy storage technologies are essential. Phase change material (PCM) is widely used in energy storage and thermal management systems due to its high energy density. Therefore, a multi-cavity visualization experiment platform of PCMs was established to investigate the heat transfer characteristics of graphene aerogel composite PCMs in this work. Synchronous phase change was achieved in each cavity by the local physical property arrangement of PCMs, which is beneficial for the latent heat utilization of PCMs. The mechanism of the synchronous phase transition is analyzed profoundly, and a synchronization parameter was established. The proximity of the parameter value to 1 indicates higher synchronization quality. The correlation between the phase change temperature difference and the heat flux of five-cavity configurations was illustrated. Moreover, the significant enhancement in thermal conductivity of composite PCMs can improve the heat dissipation effect within the five-cavity phase change test. However, its melting time lags behind that of the pure paraffin system by 172 to 267 s, indicating that the natural internal convection within the pure paraffin system remains advantageous in augmenting the phase change rate.