Research progress of phase change materials on heat transfer

Energy storage plays important roles in conserving available energy and improving its utilization, since many energy sources are intermittent in nature. Energy storage, in particular the thermal energy storage becomes increasingly popular and technically attractive as one of the possible solutions for energy conservation and leveling of energy demand patterns. Because of advantages of high energy storage density and nearly constant temperature in phase change process, phase change materials (PCMs) have been becoming one of the key researches. This paper reviews the application of PCMs on heat transfer and the development trend in future is prospected. In view of the problem of low thermal conductivity, some heat transfer enhancement methods on PCMs are reviewed, such as adding mental, fins, graphite, carbon brushes, etc.