PHASE CHANGE MATERIAL

• Phase change materials (PCM) are substances that absorb and release thermal energy during the process of melting and freezing.
• PCM's recharge as ambient temperatures fluctuate, making them ideal for a variety of everyday applications that require temperature control.
• water is most commonly used Phase Change Material(PCM).

Thermal energy can be stored as a change in internal energy of a material as sensible heat and latent heat.
In Sensible Heat Storage (SHS), thermal energy is stored by raising the temperature of a solid or liquid.

The amount of heat enrgy stored in Phase Change Material (PCM) stored depends on the specific heat of the material, the temperature change and the amount of storage material.
Latent Heat Storage (LHS) is based on the heat absorption or release when a storage material undergoes a phase change from solid to liquid or liquid to gas or vice versa.

where m is the mass material
LH is Latent heat of the material

Lets understand How does PCM Works ?

To understand how Phase change Material works lets refer to the above figure , as Phase change material detects any temperature rise in its environment it changes its phase and stores thermal energy either in sensible heat or latent heat and as the temperature falls it releases stored energy to the environment.
To understand this more practically lets understand with a glass of vine and some ice cubes ;)
when the water is converted into the ice it stores energy in the form of latent heat (phase transformation) and when it is in the glass of wine it releases its energy into the wine and makes it chiller.
and that's how a Phase change material works :)) , storing the excess energy and releasing it when it detects an environment temperature difference.

lets look into some of PCM's Daily life applications

Phase Change Materials (PCMs) are very famous where temperature control is required like space heating, cooling in buildings, solar applications, food protection ,smart textile etc.

Smart textiles

what could be better than a textile material which changes its temperature according to the climatic property and provide comfort to its user . This technology incorporated PCM micro capsules into textile structure to improve their thermal performance.The original intent was to use these fabrics in the astronauts’ space suits to provide improved thermal protection against the extreme temperature fluctuations in outer space.

• when temperature rises due to a higher ambient temperature, the microcapsules react by absorbing heat. The PCMs in the microcapsules melts. They draw heat from their surroundings and store the surplus energy.
• when the temperature falls due to a lower ambient temperature, they release the previously stored heat.

Applications In Buildings

Air conditioner consumes large amount of electricity,High cost for investment , operation & maintenance. Emits considerable amount of CO2.
Micro capsule PCM is integrated with building material for ceilings and walls, Micro capsule PCM are tiny acrylic glass sphere filled with paraffin wax initially solid.

in the above figure , as the temperature increases inside the room the excessive heat is absorbed by the micro capsules of PCM and as the temperature falls, the heat absorbed by micro capsules is released and this is how the temperature inside the room is maintained.

This was the brief introduction and some applications in details of the Phase Change Material.

Hope you enjoy this short educational post on the Phase Change Material.

if you like my work let me know by upvoting and commenting in the post , any questions regarding the post are heartly invited :) .
you can follow me for more educational stuffs like this and life qoutaions.

#steemiteducation