Thermal energy storage refers to the stocking of heat energy by heating or cooling an energy storage medium such that the heat may be used at a later time in heating or cooling applications. Thermal energy storage generally falls into three primary categories based on the thermal physics and thermochemistry of the storage medium:
- Latent heat energy storage technologies – which store heat using phase change materials and eutectics to store energy by melting and crystallization
- Sensible heat energy storage – which store heat by exploiting the heat capacity of a material, such as a metal or bedrock heat sink or a heat-transfer fluid.
- Chemical heat energy storage – which stores heat by exploiting reversible chemical reactions, such as gas adsorption and desorption or hydration and dehydration of salts.
In all TES applications, it is key to have a thorough and complete understanding of the thermal behavior of the thermal energy storage material being used. Thus, you may need to measure:
- Thermal conductivity – key performance attribute in phase-change materials, heat-transfer fluids, heat sinks, eutectics and certain chemical heat energy storage systems
- Heat of melting or reaction – key performance attributes in chemical heat energy storage systems and latent heat energy storage systems
- Specific heat capacity – key performance attribute in heat-transfer fluids and heat sinks
- Thermal effusivity (aka thermal inertia) – key performance attribute in phase change materials and eutectics
- Thermal diffusivity (aka heat spreading) – key performance attribute in heat sinks
Knowledge of thermal properties can enable optimization of TES systems. This webinar will explore how to thermally characterize these materials, highlighting calorimetry, thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity, and thermal effusivity test methods.
This webinar will be of particular interest to any researchers working in materials science for TES applications and to thermal engineers working on TES systems.
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