Effect of Supercooling on the Solidification Process of the Phase Change Material

Some phase change materials (PCMs), such as salt hydrate, have the problem of supercooling. However, the effect of supercooling on the solidification process of PCM was usually ignored in the previous numerical researches, which would affect the accuracy of the results. To figure out the effect of supercooling on the solidification process of PCM, a mathematical heat transfer model of PCM was established in this paper and it was verified. The results showed that the supercooling degree of PCM is larger, the starting time of its solidification process would be later and the temperature of PCM would be lower; Before the phase transition, the maximum heat flux increases with the increase of supercooling degree. However, the maximum heat flux during the whole solidification process decreases with the increase of supercooling degree. Therefore, for some PCMs with high supercooling degree, the neglect of the effect of supercooling will bring significant errors to the (C) 2017 Published by Elsevier Ltd.