The growing global energy demand, coupled with environmental concerns, necessitates the development of efficient energy storage technologies. Phase Change Materials (PCMs) have emerged as a promising solution for thermal energy storage (TES) due to their ability to store and release latent heat during phase transitions. This review provides a comprehensive analysis of PCMs, exploring their classifications based on phase transition types, chemical compositions, and thermophysical properties. Additionally, the review highlights advancements in developing organic, inorganic, and metallic PCMs and evaluates their potential applications in sectors such as solar energy, construction, and automotive industries. Methodologies include a detailed examination of the strengths, limitations, and solutions to challenges such as low thermal conductivity, phase separation, and supercooling. The results summarize the diverse applications of PCMs, emphasizing their critical role in enhancing energy efficiency and sustainability. The review concludes with recommendations for overcoming current limitations and future directions for PCM research and technology integration across various industries.

The paper presents an attempt of modelling liquid steel motion triggered off by electromagnetic stirring. Steel viscosity was calculated on the basis of temperature field determined with the use of stationary heat conduction equation. Velocity field was determined using Navier-Stokes equations and stream continuity equation. Solution was obtained using the finite element method. The developed model allows to carry out quick simulating calculations of fluid flow. Stationary solution was employed, and this allowed to reduce computation time substantially.

The global energy transition and increasingly rigorous legal regulations aimed at climate protection are driving the search for alternative energy sources, including renewable energy sources (RESs) and waste heat. However, the mismatch between supply and demand presents a significant challenge. Thermal energy storage (TES) technologies, particularly mobile thermal energy storage (M-TES), offer a potential solution to address this gap. M-TES can not only balance supply and demand but also facilitate the transportation of heat from the source to the recipient. This paper reviews the current state of M-TES technologies, focusing on their technology readiness level, key operating parameters, and advantages and disadvantages. It is found that M-TES can be based on sensible heat, latent heat, or thermochemical reactions, with the majority of research and projects centered around latent heat storage. Regarding the type of research, significant progress has been made at the laboratory and simulation levels, while real-world implementation remains limited, with few pilot projects and commercially available systems. Despite the limited number of real-world M-TES implementations, currently existing M-TES systems can store up to 5.4 MWh in temperatures ranging from 58 °C to as high as 1300 °C. These findings highlight the potential of the M-TES and offer data for technology selection, simultaneously indicating the research gaps and future research directions.

The Influence of Thermal Stresses and Strand Bending on Surface Defects Formation in Continuously Cast Strands: Improvement of slab surface quality is a very important goal in continues casting process of steel. It is closely coupled with casting line productivity and tendency to increase casting speed. In such a case rapid cooling of strand surface mast be employed. It results in thermal stresses development and formation of surface cracks if casting speed, cooling conditions or the arc of casting machine are not appropriate. The strain and stress fields in continuously cast strand have been determined based on the developed thermo-mechanical model and finite element software. It allowed to calculate variation of selected criterions integrals over the hole casting line starting from solidification process in the mould and ending at cutting section. Steady solution to heat transfer equation has been used to calculate strand temperature field. Mould temperature has been calculated from the three dimensional transient model. Finite element method has been employed to build steady and transient heat transfer models. Finite element solution accuracy to the temperature field has been improved. New algorithm of the solidification heat handling has been developed to stabilize a steady solution to the heat transport equation. Damageability of the strand has been evaluated based on four fracture criterions.

The paper presents a mathematical model of heat transfer during cooling of hot-rolled rails in the reversing mill. The influence of the radiation shield on the temperature of rolled rails has been analyzed. The heat transfer model for cooling a strip covered by the thermal shield has been presented. The two types of shields build of steel and aluminum sheets separated with insulating layer have been studded. Calculations have been performed with self developed software which utilizes the finite element method.