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Development and Validation of Phase Change Materials for Energy Storage

A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "G2: Phase Change Materials for Energy Storage".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 10 August 2025 | Viewed by 397

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Building, Energy and Environment (BEE) Research Group, Faculty of Engineering, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK
Interests: energy storage in phase change materials (PCM); thermochemical energy storage systems; energy conversion and sustainable systems; low carbon construction materials; integrated environmental energy management; low energy buildings; desiccant technology; integrated PV/PCM/thermoelectric systems; indoor air quality; green roofs; energy modelling; green transport technology; total quality environmental management; green refrigeration and air conditioning systems
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
Faculty of Engineering, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK
Interests: building physics; energy modelling; AI systems; sustainable building design; phase change materials

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Phase change materials (PCMs) are widely recognised as energy storage materials that minimize the mismatch between energy supply and demand and can be applied to general energy conservation methods.

However, commercially available PCMs have inherently low thermal conductivity, limiting their thermal effectiveness, despite attempts to improve this aspect. Additionally, PCMs are limited by fixed phase transition temperatures and chemical stability over long periods, thus restricting their effectiveness and adaptability across diverse climates. The integration of PCMs could also substantially raise product costs, accounting for 30-40% of the final price, which hinders widespread adoption. These highlighted barriers have prompted numerous studies focused on the development and application of novel phase change materials.

This Special Issue is therefore intended to present and disseminate the most recent advances in the theory, fabrication, integration and evaluation of phase change materials.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to the following:

  • Theoretical modelling;
  • Optimal design and integration of phase change materials;
  • Life cycle analysis;
  • Nanoencapsulation of PCMs;
  • Heat transfer enhancement;
  • 3D printing of PCMs;
  • Molecular dynamic simulation;
  • Multiphase change materials;
  • AI-enabled fabrication.

Prof. Dr. Jo Darkwa
Dr. John Calautit
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • phase change material
  • molecular dynamics
  • AI
  • energy storage

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

22 pages, 13993 KiB  
Article
Impacts of Design Parameters on the Thermal Performance of a Macro-Encapsulated Phase-Change-Material Blind Integrated in a Double-Skin Façade System
by Yilin Li, Wenshan He, Wanting Tao, Caiyi Yang, Yidong Li and Jo Darkwa
Energies 2025, 18(13), 3326; https://doi.org/10.3390/en18133326 - 25 Jun 2025
Viewed by 272
Abstract
Double-skin façades (DSFs) are promising sustainable design elements of buildings. However, they are prone to overheating problems in warm seasons due to high outdoor temperatures and intense solar radiation. Although phase-change material (PCM) blinds have proved to be effective at enhancing the thermal [...] Read more.
Double-skin façades (DSFs) are promising sustainable design elements of buildings. However, they are prone to overheating problems in warm seasons due to high outdoor temperatures and intense solar radiation. Although phase-change material (PCM) blinds have proved to be effective at enhancing the thermal performance of DSFs, the impacts of the design parameters are crucial to the overall thermal performance of the system. This study focused on analyzing the impacts of design parameters on the thermal performance of a ventilated DSF system, which consisted of a macro-encapsulated phase-change material (PCM) blind with an aluminum shell. A simulation study was conducted using ANSYS Workbench FLUENT software, and the temperature distributions of the integrated system were compared with different blind tilt angles and ratios of cavity depth to blind width. The results show that both the blind tilt angle and ratio of cavity depth to blind width had a significant influence on the thermal performance of the DSF system. For instance, lower air-cavity temperatures within the range of 37~40 °C were achieved with the PCM blind at tilt angles of 30° and 60° compared with other selected tilt angles (0° and 90°). In terms of the cavity depth to blind width ratio, a ratio of 2.5 resulted in a lower air-cavity temperature and a better thermal performance by the DSF. With the optimal blind tilt angle and cavity depth to blind width ratio, the integrated DSF and macro-encapsulated PCM-blind system can reduce the cavity temperature by as much as 2.9 °C during the warm season. Full article
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