Melting of phase change material assisted by expanded metal mesh

Accelerating the melting of phase change material (PCM) via metal foam impregnation is an established method. In this work, it is proposed to use expanded metal mesh (EMM) as an inexpensive alternative. Raised aluminium EMM sheet was cut into five layers, arranged perpendicularly and attached with wire columns, creating a 90% porosity unit. Salt hydrate PCM, which melted at 46 degrees C, filled the void space creating a PCM/EMM composite. The composite was heated at 55 degrees C, and the melt completion time was compared with the control i.e. pure PCM. It was found that EMM reduced the melting time by 14%, which could be increased if better thermal interfaces such as soldering or brazing were used. Small scale modelling compared very well with the experimental results, which verified its viability to model PCM/EMM systems. Simulation showed that an excellently contacting EMM layers arranged in parallel, resulted in an 81% melting time reduction, far superior than any metal foam/PCM performances to date. EMM is a promising concept in enhancing heat transfer in PCM, which requires further studies to optimize the performance. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.