A prediction model of the effective thermal conductivity of the micro-lattice phase change material

Abstract

The micro-lattice phase change material is a new type of thermal control material that effectively integrates the metallic hollow micro-lattice and phase change material together and exploits their advantages on the heat transfer capability and the heat storage capacity. This paper proposes a model to predict the effective thermal conductivity of micro-lattice phase change materials considering the heat transferring between the two different phases. The Fourier?s law and the modified volume calculation method were used to derive a new prediction model, and the prediction model was refined using the finite volume method. Testing and the finite element method were used to validate that the proposed prediction model is more accurate than traditional prediction models. At the same time, we also analyzed the influence of boundary effects and micro-structural parameters of the hollow micro-lattice on the effective thermal conductivity.