Open Access

ARTICLE

Temperature Control Performance and Cooling Release Characteristics of PCM in Large Space: Case Study of Cold Storage

Zhengrong Shi^1,3, Hai Hong¹, Yanming Shen^2,*, Jingyong Cai^1,*

1 College of Energy and Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai University of Electric Power, Shanghai, 201306, China
2 Research and Development Center, Heatmate New Energy Technology Co., Ltd., Shanghai, 200090, China
3 Shanghai Non-Carbon Energy Conversion and Utilization Institute, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China

* Corresponding Authors: Yanming Shen. Email: ; Jingyong Cai. Email:

Energy Engineering 2025, 122(3), 885-903. https://doi.org/10.32604/ee.2025.061976

Received 07 December 2024; Accepted 08 February 2025; Issue published 07 March 2025

Abstract

Phase Change Material (PCM)-based cold energy storage system (CESS) can effectively utilize the peak and valley power resources to reduce the excessive dependence on the power grid. In this study, a PCM-based CESS was designed for cold storage applications. The optimal number of PCM plates was determined through numerical simulations to meet the required cold storage temperature and control time. Additionally, the air temperature field, flow field, and melting characteristics of the PCM plates during the cooling release process were analyzed. The effects of plate positioning and thickness on the cooling release performance were further investigated. The results indicated that when 64 PCM plates were used, the duration for maintaining temperatures below −18°C increased from 0.6 h to approximately 16.94 h. During the cooling release process, the temperature field in the cold storage exhibited stratification, and the melting of the PCM plates was non-uniform. Placing the PCM plates at the top or within the interlayers without cargo above proved more effective, with their cooling release power being approximately twice that of the PCM plates placed in the interlayers with cargo above. Furthermore, reducing the thickness of the PCM plates from 15 to 7.5 mm resulted in a 3.6-h increase in the time below −18°C and a 4.5-h reduction in the time required to reach 80% liquid phase fraction.

---

Keywords

---