Phase change material selection for energy storage units using a simple and effective decision-making method

This study provides a simple and effective decision-making method to choose the best phase-change material for different energy storage applications. Three case studies are provided to demonstrate the proposed decision-making method. The first case study addresses the problem of best phase-change material selection for a domestic water heating latent heat storage system by considering 15 different phase-change materials and 8 selection attributes; the second case study addresses the problem of selecting the best phase-change material for a triple tube heat exchanger unit by considering 12 different phasechange materials and 5 selection attributes; the third case study addresses the problem of best phase-change material selection for latent heat thermal energy storage within the walls of Trombe to enhance performance considering 11 phase-change materials and 4 selection attributes. The results of the proposed decision-making method are compared with those of other well-known multi-attribute decision-making methods. The proposed method is shown to be simple to implement, providing a logical way for allocating weights to the selection attributes and adaptable to phase-change material selection problems in different energy storage contexts.

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[1] The research was supported by the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, under the Mathematical Research Impact Centric Scheme (MATRICS) with the project number MTR/2023/000071.

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[2] Opracowanie rekordu ze środków MNiSW, umowa nr POPUL/SP/0154/2024/02 w ramach programu "Społeczna odpowiedzialność nauki II" - moduł: Popularyzacja nauki (2025).