IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/energy/v331y2025ics0360544225026568.html

Numerical investigation and comparative analysis on heat transfer characteristics of organic phase change materials (OPCMs) and liquid metals (LMs) under flight acceleration conditions

Author

Listed:
  • Chang, Shoujin
  • Meng, Yingze
  • Li, Xuan
  • Gao, Xiaoying
  • Lin, Ruishi
  • Liu, Bing
  • Hu, Haitao

Abstract

Organic phase change materials (OPCMs) and liquid metals (LMs) are widely used in thermal energy storage (TES) and thermal management systems in aerospace applications, yet the effects of flight acceleration on their performance and clear selection criteria remain unclear. In this study, validated enthalpy-porosity numerical models were developed to compare the melting behavior of eicosane and gallium and to develop selection guidelines. The investigation revealed that gallium melts predominantly via heat conduction, while eicosane melts primarily through natural convection, attributable to gallium's thermal conductivity being 225 times greater than that of eicosane. Complete melting occurred in 14.68 s for gallium and 810.66 s for eicosane, with gallium exhibiting a volumetric latent heat of 489 MJ/m3 (2.5 times that of eicosane) and a heat storage rate of 3.33 kW compared to 0.024 kW for eicosane. Heat flux during eicosane melting remained around 10−1 W/cm2, whereas gallium reached up to 101 W/cm2. In applications with strict limitations on weight, insulation requirements, and susceptibility to corrosion, OPCMs are recommended, whereas in applications with low constraints, LMs are advised. Under flight acceleration, eicosane's melting time increased from 811 s under normal gravity to 1200 s in microgravity (a 48 % increase) and decreased by 56 % under hypergravity (ares = 19g). In contrast, gallium's melting time increased from 13.09 s in microgravity to 14.68 s under normal gravity (12 % increase) and to 20.69 s at 19g (58 % increase), as enhanced natural convection raised the temperature of the melted region. Dimensionless correlations for the melting fraction and Nusselt number were derived. These findings offer valuable insights for designing PCM-based TES and thermal management systems in aerospace applications, thereby enhancing reliability and efficiency under dynamic flight conditions.

Suggested Citation

  • Chang, Shoujin & Meng, Yingze & Li, Xuan & Gao, Xiaoying & Lin, Ruishi & Liu, Bing & Hu, Haitao, 2025. "Numerical investigation and comparative analysis on heat transfer characteristics of organic phase change materials (OPCMs) and liquid metals (LMs) under flight acceleration conditions," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 331(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:331:y:2025:i:c:s0360544225026568
    DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2025.137014
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544225026568
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.energy.2025.137014?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bondareva, Nadezhda S. & Sheremet, Mikhail A., 2024. "Numerical simulation of heat transfer performance in an enclosure filled with a metal foam and nano-enhanced phase change material," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 296(C).
    2. Saxena, Vivek & Sahu, Santosh K. & Kundalwal, Shailesh I. & Tsai, Peichun Amy, 2025. "Enhanced thermal management system for Li-ion batteries using phase change material and liquid cooling under realistic driving cycles," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 318(C).
    3. Kazaz, Oguzhan & Karimi, Nader & Paul, Manosh C., 2024. "Optically functional bio-based phase change material nanocapsules for highly efficient conversion of sunlight to heat and thermal storage," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 305(C).
    4. Wuchen Fu & Xiao Yan & Yashraj Gurumukhi & Vivek S. Garimella & William P. King & Nenad Miljkovic, 2022. "High power and energy density dynamic phase change materials using pressure-enhanced close contact melting," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 7(3), pages 270-280, March.
    5. Zhao, Liang & Xing, Yuming & Liu, Xin, 2020. "Experimental investigation on the thermal management performance of heat sink using low melting point alloy as phase change material," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 1578-1587.
    6. Garoosi, Faroogh & Kantzas, Apostolos & Irani, Mazda, 2025. "Numerical analysis of thermal performance in Phase Change Material (PCM) melting within rectangular and square enclosures: Impact of design parameters," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 326(C).
    7. Lin, Qi & Hou, Ke & Li, Yixuan & Wang, Jihong & Qian, Fuping & Wang, Dongdong, 2025. "Experimental and numerical study on the thermal performance of microencapsulated phase change material slurry (MEPCS) for closed-loop thermosyphon cooling in a data center," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 325(C).
    8. He, Ziqiang & Yan, Yunfei & Zhang, Zhien, 2021. "Thermal management and temperature uniformity enhancement of electronic devices by micro heat sinks: A review," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 216(C).
    9. Sharifzadeh, Esmail & Rahimi, Masoud & Azimi, Neda & Abolhasani, Mahdieh, 2024. "Thermal management of photovoltaic panels using phase change materials and hierarchical ZnO/expanded graphite nanofillers," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 306(C).
    10. Wang, Jin & Yu, Kai & Duan, Runze & Xie, Gongnan & Sundén, Bengt, 2021. "Enhanced thermal management by introducing nanoparticle composite phase change materials for cooling multiple heat sources systems," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 227(C).
    11. Huang, Sheng & Li, Wuyan & Lu, Jun & Li, Yongcai & Wang, Zhihao & Zhu, Shaohui, 2024. "Experimental study on thermal performances of a solar chimney with and without PCM under different system inclination angles," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 290(C).
    12. Yang, Xiaohu & Guo, Zengxu & Liu, Yanhua & Jin, Liwen & He, Ya-Ling, 2019. "Effect of inclination on the thermal response of composite phase change materials for thermal energy storage," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 238(C), pages 22-33.
    13. Ding, Yu & Klemeš, Jiří Jaromír & Zhao, Pengbo & Zeng, Min & Wang, Qiuwang, 2022. "Numerical study on 2-stage phase change heat sink for cooling of photovoltaic panel," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 249(C).
    14. Li, Xueren & Zhang, Liwei & Shang, Bichen & Fang, Xiang & Tao, Yao & Ma, Yin & Wang, Yong & Tu, Jiyuan, 2024. "Thermal energy and thermo-economic analysis of PCM-TES for space heating based on low-temperature waste heat: An experimental and numerical study," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 311(C).
    15. Liu, Xu & Liu, Xiaochuan & Chen, Ziwei & Huang, Yong, 2024. "Experimental study on the temperature control characteristics of graphite foam-based composite phase change materials," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 299(C).
    16. Khanna, Sourav & Singh, Preeti & Mudgal, Vijay & Newar, Sanjeev & Sharma, Vashi & Becerra, Victor & Reddy, K.S. & Mallick, Tapas K., 2022. "Novel thermal conductivity enhancing containers for performance enhancement of solar photovoltaics system integrated with phase change material," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 243(C).
    17. Shamberger, Patrick J. & Bruno, Nickolaus M., 2020. "Review of metallic phase change materials for high heat flux transient thermal management applications," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 258(C).
    18. Yetik, Ozge & Engün, Semih & Kok, Baris & Karakoc, Tahir Hikmet, 2024. "Thermal management system of batteries using AlN reinforced TPMS-PCM composite material," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 313(C).
    19. Shamseddine, I. & Pennec, F. & Biwole, P. & Fardoun, F., 2022. "Supercooling of phase change materials: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    20. Wang, Yanglun & Mao, Qianjun & Zhao, Yuan & Tan, Yunlu, 2025. "Experimental and numerical study of the melting process of phase change materials with novel finned heat storage tank under non-steady state conditions," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 320(C).
    21. Huang, Sheng & Lu, Jun & Li, Yongcai, 2022. "Numerical study on the influence of inclination angle on the melting behaviour of metal foam-PCM latent heat storage units," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 239(PE).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Li, Xueqiang & Wang, Qihui & Huang, Xinyu & Yang, Xiaohu & Sundén, Bengt, 2025. "Heat transfer and performance analysis of phase change thermal control system under variable gravity conditions," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 336(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. He, Junjie & Chu, Wenxiao & Wang, Qiuwang, 2025. "Applications of low melting point alloy for electronic thermal management: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 210(C).
    2. Bondareva, Nadezhda S. & Sheremet, Mikhail A., 2024. "Numerical simulation of heat transfer performance in an enclosure filled with a metal foam and nano-enhanced phase change material," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 296(C).
    3. Wang, Ji-Xiang & Qian, Jian & Wang, Ni & Zhang, He & Cao, Xiang & Liu, Feifan & Hao, Guanqiu, 2023. "A scalable micro-encapsulated phase change material and liquid metal integrated composite for sustainable data center cooling," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 213(C), pages 75-85.
    4. Xinchen Zhou & Xiang Xu & Jiping Huang, 2023. "Adaptive multi-temperature control for transport and storage containers enabled by phase-change materials," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-14, December.
    5. Ghadim, H. Benisi & Godin, A. & Veillere, A. & Duquesne, M. & Haillot, D., 2025. "Review of thermal management of electronics and phase change materials," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 208(C).
    6. He, Junjie & Chu, Wenxiao & Wang, Qiuwang, 2024. "Interfacial heat transfer and melt-front evolution at a Fractal Cantor structured interface under various PCM melting conditions," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 294(C).
    7. Abdolahimoghadam, Mohammad & Rahimi, Masoud, 2025. "The effect of the number of tubes on the charging and discharging performances of a novel bio-nPCM within a vertical multi-tube TES system," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 319(C).
    8. Gao, Wei & Liu, Feifan & Yu, Cheng & Chen, Yongping & Liu, Xiangdong, 2023. "Microfluidic method–based encapsulated phase change materials: Fundamentals, progress, and prospects," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    9. Wang, Yabo & Huang, Xinyu & Shu, Gao & Li, Xueqiang & Yang, Xiaohu, 2024. "Influence of microgravity on melting performance of a phase-change heat storage tank," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 289(C).
    10. Madurai Elavarasan, Rajvikram & Pugazhendhi, Rishi & Shafiq, Saifullah & Gangatharan, Sivasankar & Nadarajah, Mithulananthan & Shafiullah, G.M., 2025. "Efficiency enhancement of PV panels with passive thermal management using PCM: An exhaustive review on materials, designs and effective techniques," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 382(C).
    11. Li, Xueren & Zhang, Liwei & Shang, Bichen & Fang, Xiang & Tao, Yao & Ma, Yin & Wang, Yong & Tu, Jiyuan, 2024. "Thermal energy and thermo-economic analysis of PCM-TES for space heating based on low-temperature waste heat: An experimental and numerical study," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 311(C).
    12. Yongyu Lu & Dehai Yu & Haoxuan Dong & Jinran Lv & Lichen Wang & He Zhou & Zhen Li & Jing Liu & Zhizhu He, 2022. "Magnetically tightened form-stable phase change materials with modular assembly and geometric conformality features," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-12, December.
    13. Yan, Yunfei & Meng, Xiaoyue & Wang, Dandan & Wu, Yonghong & Zhang, Chenghua & Zhao, Xuelin, 2025. "Optimized cold-end structure in a MTPV-MTEG utilization system: Analysis of combustion characteristics and energy efficiency," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 336(C).
    14. Yu, Qinghua & Chen, Xi & Yang, Hongxing, 2021. "Research progress on utilization of phase change materials in photovoltaic/thermal systems: A critical review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    15. Zeng, Kuo & Gao, Junjie & Lu, Yongwen & Zuo, Hongyang & Chi, Bowen & Fang, Zheyu & Li, Jun & Xu, Huaqian & Li, Beiyang & Yang, Haiping & Chen, Hanping, 2024. "Comprehensive enhancement of melting-solidifying process in latent heat storage based on eccentric fin-foam combination," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 313(C).
    16. Farhan, Sheikh Muhammad & Wang, Pan & Yin, JianJun & Chen, Zhijian, 2025. "Emerging trends in innovative catalysts for Methanol Steam Reforming for hydrogen production: A review of recent advances," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 332(C).
    17. Li, Xinyi & Cui, Wei & Simon, Terrence & Ma, Ting & Cui, Tianhong & Wang, Qiuwang, 2021. "Pore-scale analysis on selection of composite phase change materials for photovoltaic thermal management," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 302(C).
    18. Zou, Yuanru & Wang, Shunli & Hai, Nan & Blaabjerg, Frede & Fernandez, Carlos & Cao, Wen, 2025. "Enhanced quantile regression long short-term memory hybrid neural network for the state of charge point and interval estimation of lithium-ion batteries," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 332(C).
    19. Elsayed, Ahmed M. & Gaheen, Osama A. & Aziz, Mohamed A., 2024. "Enhancing solar chimney power plant performance through innovative collector curved-guide vanes configurations," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 232(C).
    20. Kawaguchi, Takahiro & Sakai, Hiroki & Sheng, Nan & Kurniawan, Ade & Nomura, Takahiro, 2020. "Microencapsulation of Zn-Al alloy as a new phase change material for middle-high-temperature thermal energy storage applications," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 276(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:331:y:2025:i:c:s0360544225026568. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/energy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.