A state-of-the-art review on hybrid heat pipe latent heat storage systems

The main advantage of latent heat thermal energy storage systems is the capability to store a large quantity of thermal energy in an isothermal process by changing phase from solid to liquid, while the most important weakness of these systems is low thermal conductivity that leads to unsuitable charging/discharging rates. Heat pipes are used in many applications - as one of the most efficient heat exchanger devices - to amplify the charging/discharging processes rate and are used to transfer heat from a source to the storage or from the storage to a sink. This review presents and critically discusses previous investigations and analysis on the incorporation of heat pipe devices into latent heat thermal energy storage with heat pipe devices. This paper categorizes different applications and configurations such as low/high temperature solar, heat exchanger and cooling systems, analytical approaches and effective parameters on the performance of hybrid HP-LHTES systems. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.