Enhancing thermal performance of phase change material with optimized metal foam configuration: Experimental and numerical analysis

Abstract

This study explored the use of copper metal foam to enhance the thermal performance of paraffin, a commonly utilized phase change material (PCM). The melting process and temperature of paraffin were analyzed as a function of the copper metal foam thickness. Experimental results were compared with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation results obtained using Star-CCM+, showing strong agreement. The study also investigated the effects of heat conduction through the metal foam, the melting behavior of the PCM, convective heat transfer due to the flow of molten PCM, and changes in temperature distribution across five different metal foam configurations: ‘3 cm’, ‘Rev3cm’, ‘Diagonal’, ‘RevDiagonal’, and ‘Vertical’. Among these, the ‘Vertical’ configuration demonstrated the most optimal performance, achieving a rapid melting rate and a uniform temperature distribution while maintaining the same material usage. Specifically, the ‘Vertical’ design reduced melting time by up to 41 % and decreased the maximum temperature by approximately 96.8 °C. These findings provide critical insights into the design conditions for optimizing metal foam configurations in PCM-based thermal systems.