A simple method, the -history method, of determining the heat of fusion, specific heat and thermal conductivity of phase-change materials

TLDR

Existing techniques for measuring PCM thermophysical properties are complex; this study highlights a simpler approach that can simultaneously measure heat of fusion, specific heat, and thermal conductivity while visualizing phase changes. The study presents a simple method for determining the melting point, heat of fusion, specific heat, and thermal conductivity of phase‑change materials. The method employs a straightforward experimental setup that allows simultaneous measurement of these properties for multiple PCM samples. The results agree well with literature values for known PCMs and proved especially useful for screening candidate materials and developing new PCMs.

Abstract

A simple method of determining the melting point, heat of fusion, specific heat and thermal conductivity of phase-change materials (PCMs) is presented. Compared with other methods, such as conventional calorimetric methods, differential thermal analysis and differential scanning calorimetry methods, it has the following salient features: the experimental unit is simple, able to measure the heat of fusion, specific heat and thermal conductivity of several samples of PCMs simultaneously and allows one to observe the phase-change process of each PCM sample. Using the method, the thermophysical properties of various salt hydrates, paraffin and some PCMs developed by us were measured. For the PCMs whose thermophysical properties are available in the literature, our results gave fairly good agreement. The method is especially useful for the selection of lots of candidate PCMs used for the purpose of engineering and for preparing new PCMs.