Energy optimization for melting single-layer PCM by replacing multilayer PCMs and combining with metal foam (Al-۶۰۶۱)

The study was performed on the melting performance of phase-change materials (PCMs) inside a triplex heat exchangerwith double-sided heat transfer. The purpose of numerical simulation in this paper was to investigate the effects of usingthree-layer PCM with different melting temperature instead of single-layer PCM and also the effect of theircombination with Al۶۰۶۱ metal foam (with an average porosity of ۰.۹۵) to compensate for the major problem of lowthermal conductivity of PCMs. According to research, a ۳۵% decrease in efficiency was observed for multi-layerconfiguration. However, with the addition of porous metal foam to them, the melting time was reduced by an average ofabout ۹۰%. Moreover, the increase in thermal conductivity compared to free convection caused not only the lowefficiency of the three-layer PCM mode to be compensated, but also with adding the Al۶۰۶۱, the three-layer PCM modeis at ۳% advantage to the single-layer PCM. This means that in this triplex heat exchangers, although equipping thesystem with multiple PCMs proved totally futile in terms of melting duration, factoring in the metal foam into theannulus, sharply plummeted the transition response time. Therefore, the novelty of comparing the melting performanceof phase change materials in single-layer and three-layer modes inside a triplex heat exchanger as well as the addition ofa porous metal material to each of them, regarding to applications of various industries, shows that single-layer PCMperforms better in the absence of a metal foam. On the other hand, the use of porous foam gives preference to threelayerPCM to experience faster melting.