Development and prospect of heat transfer enhancement technologies for phase change energy storage devices

Phase change energy storage generally uses the melting and solidification of phase change materials to store and release heat, which has the advantages of high energy storage density and constant phase change temperature, and is an important measure to achieve energy saving and emission reduction. However, the current common phase change materials generally have low thermal conductivity, resulting in a low energy storage rate, which is not conducive to the practical application of phase change energy storage. In this paper, the current phase change energy storage heat transfer enhancement technologies are classified, and the common heat transfer enhancement technologies are reviewed, including the single heat transfer enhancement technologies, such as adding fins, high thermal conductivity nanoparticles and porous media, and the combined heat transfer enhancement technologies formed by coupling two single heat transfer enhancement technologies, as well as the stepwise phase change material and enhanced convective heat transfer enhancement technology. The application cases of various technologies are studied, and the advantages and disadvantages of the technologies are analysed. Finally, the development of heat transfer enhancement technology is summarized, and the development direction of the future technology is forecasted.