The design of heat exchangers may change dramatically through the use of additive manufacturing (AM). Additive manufacturing, colloquially known as 3D printing, enables the production of monolithic metal bodies, devoid of contact resistance. The small volume of the exchanger, its lightness of weight, and the reduction of its production costs, compared to conventional methods, make the production of heat exchangers by AM methods conventional technologies. The review study presents a new look at the TPMS as a promising type of developed surface that can be used in the area of heat transfer. (Thus far, the only attractive option. The most important feature of additive manufacturing is the ability to print the geometry of theoretically any topography. Such a topography can be a minimal surface or its extended version—triply periodic minimal surface (TPMS). It was practically impossible to manufacture a TPMS-based heat exchanger with the method of producing a TPMS.) The issues related to the methods of additive manufacturing of metal products and the cycle of object preparation for printing were discussed, and the available publications presenting the results of CFD simulations and experimental tests of heat exchangers containing a TPMS in their construction were widely discussed. It has been noticed that the study of thermal-flow heat transfer with the use of TPMSs is a new area of research, and the number of publications in this field is very limited. The few data (mainly CFD simulations) show that the use of TPMSs causes, on the one hand, a several-fold increase in the number of Nu, and on the other hand, an increase in flow resistance. The use of TPMSs in heat exchangers can reduce their size by 60%. It is concluded that research should be carried out in order to optimize the size of the TPMS structure and its porosity so that the gains from the improved heat transfer compensate for the energy expenditure on the transport of the working fluid. It has been noticed that among the numerous types of TPMSs available for the construction of heat exchangers, practically, four types have been used thus far: primitive, gyroid, I-WP, and diamond. At the moment, the diamond structure seems to be the most promising in terms of its use in the construction of heat exchangers and heat sinks. It is required to conduct experimental research to verify the results of the CFD simulation.

The article presents the results of detailed studies of the thermal conductivity of the water slurry of microencapsulated PCM (mPCM) and slurry based on water–propylene glycol solutions. The starting product, MICRONAL^® 5428 X, which contains about 43% microencapsulated paraffin with a transformation temperature of 28 °C, was mixed with the base liquid to obtain slurries with mass fractions of mPCM of 4.3, 8.6, 12.9, 17.2, 21.5, 25.8, 30.1, 34.4, 38.7, and 43.0%. Detailed measurements were carried out in the temperature range of 10–40 °C. It was found that: (a) an increase in the temperature of the slurry caused an increase in its thermal conductivity, both when PCM was in the form of a solid and a liquid; (b) the thermal conductivity of the mPCM slurry when the PCM was in liquid form was greater than the thermal conductivity of the slurry when the PCM was liquid; (c) during the phase transformation, a significant increase in the thermal conductivity of the slurry was observed, and its peak occurred when the temperature of the slurry reached the temperature declared by the manufacturer at which the phase-transition peak occurs.

This paper is an introduction to the cycle proposed by the authors related to research directions concerning the problems of condensation of zeotropic refrigerant mixtures. For over a hundred years, research has been conducted on the search for new working fluids in the cycles for cooling devices and heat pumps. Initially, the natural refrigerants used were replaced with homogeneous synthetic refrigerants, followed by mixtures of two or more refrigerants. Among the mixtures, there are azeotropic and zeotropic mixtures. In the case of an azeotrope mixture, a liquid solution of two or more chemical compounds is in thermodynamic equilibrium with the saturated vapor resulting from this mixture. The chemical composition of the liquid and vapor is identical. A zeotropic mixture is a liquid-vapor system in which the composition of a liquid mixture (solution) of two or more chemical compounds is always different from that of the saturated vapor generated from this liquid. This is due to the different boiling and condensation temperatures of the individual components of the mixture at the same pressure. There is a so-called temperature glide. The phase transformations of individual components do not run simultaneously, which means that the boiling or condensation phase transition temperature changes during the process being carried out. This raises a number of computational, design, and operational problems for power equipment. Today, however, zeotropic mixtures find an alternative to refrigerants with a high GWP potential. Despite the disadvantage of temperature glide, they also have advantages. These include ecological, energy, and economic indicators. As a result, they are increasingly used in the energy economy. This prompts researchers to conduct further research in the field of a detailed description of the phenomenon of boiling and condensation phase transformations of zeotropic mixtures under temperature glide, searching for new computational relationships, new design solutions, and applications. It is still an insufficiently recognized research problem. Bearing the above in mind, the authors made an attempt to review the state of knowledge in this area. Particular attention was paid to the progress in modeling the condensation phenomenon of zeotropic mixtures for application in compact heat exchangers. Miniaturization of cooling devices creates great application possibilities in this area.

This paper details an experimental study that was performed to investigate the specific heat of microencapsulated phase change material (mPCM) slurry and its heat of fusion at the PCM phase change transition temperature. Six samples (mPCM slurry concentrate with the water solution of propylene glycol used as a main base liquid) were prepared. As the concentrate contains 43.0% mPCM, the actual mass fraction amounts to 8.6, 12.9, 17.2, 21.5, 25.8, and 30.1 wt%, respectively. The thermal delay method was used. Samples were cooled from 50 °C to 10 °C. A higher concentration of microcapsules caused a proportional increase in the specific heat of slurry at the main peak melting temperature. The maximum value of the specific heat changed from 9.2 to 33.7 kJ/kg for 8.6 wt%, and 30.1 wt%, respectively. The specific heat of the mPCM slurry is a constant quantity and depends on the concentration of the microcapsules. The specific heat of the slurry (PCM inside microcapsules in a liquid form) decreased from 4.0 to 3.8 kJ/(kgK) for 8.6 wt%, and 30.1 wt% of mPCM, respectively. The specific heat of the slurry (PCM inside microcapsules in a liquid form) was higher than when the PCM in the microcapsules is in the form of a solid and increased from 4.5 to 5.2 kJ/(kgK) for 8.6 wt% and 30.1 wt% of mPCM, respectively.