Analysis of thermal storage behavior of composite phase change materials embedded with gradient-designed TPMS thermal conductivity enhancers: A numerical and experimental study

Phase change materials (PCMs) exhibit considerable potential for utilization in energy storage and temperature regulation applications, primarily attributed to their notable latent heat capacity. Nevertheless, the intrinsically limited thermal conductivity of PCMs necessitates the use of thermal conductivity enhancers (TCEs) that possess adjustable features to compensate for greater heat storage efficiency. Porous structures with flexible design freedom have garnered growing interest in contrast to traditional random foams, owing to their significantly larger surface areas and fully interconnected pore networks. This study fabricated three polar form-designed triply periodic minimal surfaces (TPMS) porous structures using selective laser melting (SLM) based on various radial density gradients, namely the uniform density, the linear gradient, and the Boltzmann gradient. The TPMS porous structures were incorporated as TCEs within a paraffin matrix to form composite TPMS-PCMs. The melting behavior of composite TPMS-PCMs during the charging process was investigated by employing both visual experiments and numerical methods. A thorough analysis was undertaken regarding the progression of solid-liquid phase interfaces, temperature distribution, convection distribution, and heat storage rate to elucidate the mechanisms that contribute to enhanced heat transfer. The findings indicate that the configuration of the density gradient has a notable impact on the melting behavior of composite TPMS-PCMs by tuning heat transfer paths. The heat storage rate of the linear gradient case is the highest among the three, reaching 12.1 W, 1.6 times that of the uniform density case, and twice that of the Boltzmann gradient case. Although the Boltzmann gradient case has the lowest heat storage rate, it demonstrates exceptional performance in terms of temperature uniformity. The average temperature gradient along the radius during melting is 348.6 °C/m, which is only 59% observed in the linear gradient case and 56% in the uniform density case. These findings substantiate the effectiveness of the radial gradient density design in the control of the thermal storage process of composite TPMS-PCMs. They serve as a reference for optimizing thermal storage and temperature control systems that rely on latent heat storage in the future.