An experimental set-up for measuring thermodynamic response of low temperature phase change materials

Phase Change Materials (PCMs) are being used in thermal energy storage systems because of their high energy storage density, and heat storage/release in small temperature range near melting temperature. Such requirements compel to design and develop materials with high latent heat of fusion for thermal energy storage applications. This will rely on characterization of materials to understand their thermal properties as a function of temperature. In this work, an experimental set-up is presented for measuring the thermodynamic properties of materials, such as, temperature-time response, latent heat of fusion, specific heat of solids and liquids, melting-solidification temperatures, degree of supercooling and enthalpy-temperature response of PCMs. The present experimental test set-up, including specific PCM container, is designed and fabricated for characterization of low temperature PCMs with melting temperature in the range of 0–100°C.