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Advances in Numerical Modeling of Heat Storage Materials
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Advances in Numerical Modeling of Heat Storage Materials

A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944). This special issue belongs to the section "Materials Simulation and Design".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 September 2026 | Viewed by 894

Editors

Dr. Weilin Li

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Civil Engineering, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China
Interests: building heat storage; phase change heat storage; air source heat pumps; energy flexibility of HVAC systems; energy-efficient buildings
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Xin Wang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Environment and Architecture, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai, China
Interests: building environment simulation; air purification; large space airflow organization; HVAC system control
Dr. Yabin Guo

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Civil Engineering, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China
Interests: fault detection and diagnosis of HVAC systems; data-driven methods; data mining; building energy-saving
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The Special Issue entitled “Advances in Numerical Modeling of Heat Storage Materials” aims to provide a platform for cutting-edge research on the development and application of advanced numerical methods for heat storage technologies. With the growing demand for efficient and sustainable thermal energy management in renewable energy systems, industrial processes, and building applications, accurate modeling is critical for system optimization and performance prediction. This Special Issue welcomes contributions that explore novel numerical approaches, multi-scale and multi-physics simulations, model validation against experimental data, and integration with optimization or control strategies. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the modeling of phase change materials (PCMs), thermochemical heat storage, sensible heat storage systems, coupled heat and mass transfer, and transient thermal processes. Submissions addressing computational efficiency, uncertainty quantification, and digital twin applications are also encouraged. By gathering innovative methodologies and practical insights, this Special Issue seeks to advance the fundamental understanding and technological development of high-performance heat storage systems.

Dr. Weilin Li
Dr. Xin Wang
Dr. Yabin Guo
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Materials 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

  • numerical modeling
  • heat storage
  • phase change materials (PCMs)
  • thermochemical storage
  • sensible heat storage
  • multi-physics simulation
  • heat and mass transfer
  • thermal energy systems
  • computational optimization
  • digital twin

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

25 pages, 7340 KB  
Article
Numerical Study of Temperature Fields and Control Methods for Improving the Grain Storage Safety of Semi-Underground Granaries
by Haitao Wang, Jiabao Liu, Liu Yang, Kai Liu, Shujie Niu and Yuanyuan Wang
Materials 2026, 19(15), 3357; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma19153357 - 6 Aug 2026
Abstract
The semi-underground granary is a new type of energy-saving grain storage facility that can use shallow geothermal energy to reduce energy consumption during grain storage. However, unclear temperature fields and the lack of grain pile temperature control methods are not conducive to the [...] Read more.
The semi-underground granary is a new type of energy-saving grain storage facility that can use shallow geothermal energy to reduce energy consumption during grain storage. However, unclear temperature fields and the lack of grain pile temperature control methods are not conducive to the design and application of semi-underground granaries. In this study, the temperature fields and temperature control methods for grain piles in a semi-underground granary were numerically investigated by using an experimentally verified COMSOL model and a collaborative simulation method combining steady-state heat transfer and dynamic heat transfer. Multiple grain storage temperature control methods for the semi-underground granary were presented to improve grain storage safety, including an intermediate floor slab, an embedded-pipe wall, floor burial depth, and envelope insulation. The results showed that there was significant spatial heterogeneity in the temperature field distribution of the grain pile in the semi-underground granary. The large thermal inertia of the soil and the stable low-temperature soil environment reduced the influence of outdoor air temperature variations on the grain pile temperature field. Installing an intermediate floor slab could achieve natural low-temperature grain storage in the underground section of the semi-underground granary. An embedded-pipe wall could effectively solve the problem of local temperature increases in grain piles caused by heat transfer through the granary walls. The floor burial depth of the semi-underground granary was a key influencing factor of heat transfer through the granary wall. Granary wall thickness had a significant impact on the thermal performance of the walls and the grain pile temperature field due to changes in wall insulation. These results can provide beneficial suggestions for guiding the design of grain storage temperature control methods in semi-underground granaries. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Numerical Modeling of Heat Storage Materials)
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29 pages, 11828 KB  
Article
Optimization and Comparative Study of Non-Pressurized Shell-and-Tube Latent Heat Storage for Air-Source Heat Pump Systems: Numerical and Experimental Investigation
by Weilin Li, Yuguo Fu, Hanrui Wang and Xingtao Zhang
Materials 2026, 19(10), 2014; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma19102014 - 12 May 2026
Viewed by 378
Abstract
To mitigate the spatiotemporal mismatch between renewable energy supply and building heating demand, this study proposes a novel non-pressurized shell-and-tube latent heat storage (NP-LHS) device coupled with an air-source heat pump (ASHP) system. To overcome the inherent low thermal conductivity of organic phase [...] Read more.
To mitigate the spatiotemporal mismatch between renewable energy supply and building heating demand, this study proposes a novel non-pressurized shell-and-tube latent heat storage (NP-LHS) device coupled with an air-source heat pump (ASHP) system. To overcome the inherent low thermal conductivity of organic phase change materials (PCMs), the thermal performances of plain, corrugated, and finned tubes were systematically compared using both computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations and full-scale experiments. Numerical results indicate that the optimal tube spacing ratio ranges from 1.0 to 1.5. Among the evaluated geometries, the finned tube configuration exhibited superior comprehensive performance. It achieved an exceptionally high PCM volume fraction of 92.5% and dramatically reduced the complete melting time to 180 min—significantly faster than both corrugated (280 min) and bare tubes—while attaining a higher terminal temperature. Full-cycle dynamic experiments further demonstrated that integrating the finned tube NP-LHS into the ASHP system yielded a peak-shaving power reduction rate of 98.0%, effectively maintaining indoor thermal comfort. These findings conclude that expanding the conductive surface area via fins is practically more effective than inducing fluid turbulence for low-conductivity PCMs in non-pressurized storage applications. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Numerical Modeling of Heat Storage Materials)
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