Phase Change Material Freezing in an Energy Storage Module for a Micro Environmental Control System

Abstract

This study analyzes phase change material (PCM) freezing process in a novel latent heat storage device (LHSD). Heat is removed from the PCM with an embedded evaporator. A mathematical model of freezing in a finite-thickness PCM slab is presented. An experimentally validated reduced-order model (ROM) based on the mathematical model was developed to analyze the heat transfer between the freezing PCM and an evaporating refrigerant flowing inside a flat, microchannel tube coil embedded in the PCM. A detailed finite element model (FEM) of the same device was also developed and employed to verify the validity of the ROM over a wider range of conditions. The freezing times and total “cooling” stored in the PCM computed by the ROM agree very well with those computed by the detailed FEM. The ROM executes in ∼1 min for a full heat exchanger, compared with more than 10 h for the FEM, making the former much more practical for use in parametric analysis and optimization of design alternatives.