In the study, annular fins are used to improve the thermal management performance of the phase change material (PCM) towards a cylindrical heat source. A two-dimensional axisymmetric model is established and the influence of fins on the temperature of the heat source is studied in conjunction with the melting process of PCM. The effects of the positions of a single annular fin are investigated. Results show that the lower the individual fin is in the PCM, the faster the melting rate and the lower the temperature, which is because the PCM above the fins can absorb more heat from the upper surface of the fin through natural convection. Maintaining a constant total volume of fins, the effect of multiple annular fins is studied. The results show that multiple annular fins have larger heat transfer areas and more uniform fin distribution, resulting in lower temperature and temperature difference of the heat source surface. Furthermore, the use of multiple fins of unequal height, with bottom fins being higher, is found to be more effective. The best improvement in the thermal management performance of the system is achieved when the height of the fins is 4, 8, and 11 mm from top to bottom, respectively.

This study is to utilize the heat-absorbing and releasing capabilities of phase change materials (PCM) to regulate the surface temperature fluctuations of batteries during charging and discharging. The goal is to keep the battery within the optimal operating temperature range. The impact of PCM thickness and phase change temperature on battery temperature is investigated by encircling a cylindrical battery with a PCM ring. To improve the thermal conductivity of PCM, expanded graphite (EG) is added to make a composite phase change material (CPCM), and the effects of various EG mass ratios on battery surface temperature and CPCM utilization level are investigated. The findings indicate that increasing PCM thickness effectively extends temperature control time, but its impact is limited. The difference in phase change temperature of PCM controls the battery temperature in different temperature ranges. Lower phase change temperatures are unsuitable for controlling battery temperature in high temperature environments. The addition of EG enhances the thermal conductivity of PCM, leading to further control of battery temperature. The results show that the addition of 6% (mass ratio) EG to CPCM extends the effective temperature control time by 11 min and improves by 28% compared to a single PCM. The CPCM utilization is also more satisfactory and achieved a balance between heat storage and thermal conductivity in a battery thermal management system (BTMS) based on PCM.

In order to ensure the safety and stability of the cooling system during the operation of the battery thermal management system combined with composite phase change material cooling and liquid cooling, it is usually necessary to continuously pump cooling water. It inevitably caused that the latent heat of composite phase change material could not be fully released and extra pump power was consumed. In the study, five different energy saving strategies were proposed and the energy efficiency ratio was defined to evaluate their cooling effects and energy saving. The effect of energy saving strategies on energy consumption of liquid cooling and latent heat utilization of composite phase change material was analyzed. The results show that III and V can meet their cooling requirements and have a high energy efficiency ratio. The screw pitch and cooling water flow rate in these two modes were investigated. The results show that the increase in screw pitch reduces the heat transfer efficiency, resulting in an increase in Tmax and ΔTmax, and ΔTmax exceeding the maximum range. Diminishing the cooling water flow will precipitate a rise in battery temperature, enabling the CPCM to operate at its maximum capacity and consequently decreasing ΔTmax. As a cooling water flow of 20 ml/minute in III and V all can satisfy the cooling requirements. Additionally, the III was also competent when the cooling water temperature was raised from 25 °C to 35 °C.

The application of phase change material (PCM) in energy storage systems is limited by its low thermal conductivity. One of the effective methods to improve the thermal conductivity of PCM is to embed foam metal within it. To investigate the effects of foam metal infill position and porosity on the melting process and temperature distribution of PCM, a visualized experimental system study is built. Paraffin is employed as the PCM with a melting point of 62 degrees C, while 85%, 90%, and 95% porosity copper foams are chosen in the experiment. The evolution of the liquid-solid phase interface and the temperature distribution in the PCM are recorded. Single-layer filling schemes show that placing copper foam closer to the bottom accelerates melting, while double-layer schemes further optimize the melting time and temperature distribution. Additionally, decreasing the porosity of copper foam enhances heat transfer, shortening melting times. The study introduces a melting efficiency index, demonstrating that optimizing filling schemes and porosities improves the overall melting performance. When the copper foam with 90% and 85% porosity is arranged in the middle and bottom layers, respectively, the complete melting time is shortened by 38.2% and the maximum and average temperature differences are reduced by 30.0% and 45.2%, respectively, compared with pure paraffin. The findings contribute valuable insights into designing efficient PCM systems for thermal energy storage applications, emphasizing the importance of copper foam arrangement and porosity optimization.

High-entropy alloys (HEAs) are a new type of multi-component alloy. The design of the compositions breaks the design ideas of traditional alloys and shows many excellent properties. Therefore, an Al0.5FeCoCrNi HEA with face-centered cubic (FCC) and body-centered cubic (BCC) dual-phase structure was used in this paper. During the additive manufacturing process, the heat dissipation rate gradually changes with the increase in wall height. As a result, the composition of the phases changes, resulting in differences in mechanical properties. Here, we designed laser melting deposition (LMD) on T-beams of different heights to change the heat dissipation rate of the wall, and the effects of the heat dissipation rate on the microstructure and mechanical properties of Al0.5FeCoCrNi HEAs were studied. The experimental results showed that increasing the height of the T-beam would gradually slow down the heat dissipation rate of the wall. The above phenomena not only led to a gradual reduction of the BCC phase under the influence of heat accumulation but also increased the length of columnar crystals in the wall with the slowing of heat dissipation. Heat accumulation hindered the nucleation during solidification and eventually led to the growth of grains across the deposition layer. Furthermore, the slow heat dissipation rate changed the grain number and BCC phase content, which gradually decreased the strength and hardness, while the ductility of the samples improved.

High-entropy alloys (HEAs) show great promise for various applications in many fields. However, it still remains a challenge to obtain the ideal match of the tensile strength and the ductility. In this paper, Al0.5FeCoCrNi walls were fabricated through laser melting deposition (LMD) technology with laser power ranging from 1000 W to 1800 W. Along with the increase in laser power, the average size of the Al0.5FeCoCrNi walls increased from 14.31 μm to 34.88 μm, and the B2 phase decreased from 16.5% to 2.1%. Notably, the ultimate tensile strength and the ductility of the 1000 W bottom wall were 737 MPa and 24.6%, respectively, while those of 1800 W top wall were 641 MPa and 27.6%, respectively, demonstrating that the tensile strength of the walls decreased and the ductility increased with the increase in laser power. Furthermore, quantitative calculation revealed that grain boundary strengthening and dislocation strengthening were the two major forms of strengthening compared to the others. This study concluded that the mechanical properties of HEAs could be regulated by laser power, enabling broader applications in industry with favorable tensile strength or ductility.

In order to develop the high-entropy alloy (HEA) with low cost and excellent mechanical properties for structural applications, the FeCoCrNiAl0.5 HEA has been fabricated by laser melting deposition, one of the advanced ad-ditive manufacturing methods. Strain hardening behaviour has been analysed and discussed using the combi-nation of characterisation techniques. The LMD-ed FeCoCrNiAl0.5 had a true yield strength and strain of similar to 463 MPa and 2.94%. Also, the true tensile strength of the LMD-ed FeCoCrNiAl0.5 reached 876 MPa, together with the ductility of 24.97% (engineering strain). The LMD-ed FeCoCrNiAl0.5 HEA exhibited a dual-phase structure of 93% face-centred cubic (FCC) phase and 6.9% ordered B2 phase. The phase boundary between the disordered FCC and ordered B2 phases played a key role in the barrier, which can block the movement of dislocations because of the lattice distortion, very large angle, and mismatch of the lattice. Dislocation pile-up and tangle caused the dislocation density near the phase boundaries to be higher than that in other areas, meanwhile, they further prevented the movement of dislocation under stress as they generated back stress, therefore LMD-ed FeCoCrNiAl0.5 HEA had a good strain hardening behaviour with a strain hardening exponent of 0.92. This study provided an innovative insight into the development of HEAs with ordered phase by laser additive manufacturing for structural applications.