Developing thermal storage materials is crucial for the efficient recovery of thermal energy. Salt-based phase-change materials have been widely studied. Despite their high thermal storage density and low cost, they still face issues such as low thermal conductivity and easy leaks. Therefore, a new type of NaCl-Al₂O₃@SiC@Al₂O₃ macrocapsule was developed to address these drawbacks, and it exhibited excellent rapid heat storage and release capabilities and was extremely stable, significantly reducing the risk of leakage at high temperatures for industrial waste heat recovery and in concentrated solar power systems above 800 °C. Thermal storage macrocapsules consisted of a double-layer encapsulation of silicon carbide and alumina and a self-standing core of NaCl-Al₂O_3. After enduring over 1000 h at a high temperature of 850 °C, the encapsulated phase-change material exhibited an extremely low weight loss rate of less than 5% compared with NaCl@Al₂O₃ and NaCl-Al₂O₃@Al₂O₃ macrocapsules, for which the weight loss rate was reduced by 25% and 10%, respectively, proving their excellent leakage prevention. The SiC powder layer, serving as an intermediate coating, further prevented leakage, while the use of Al₂O₃ ceramics for encapsulation enhanced the overall mechanical strength. It was innovatively discovered that the Al₂O₃ particles formed a network structure around the molten NaCl, playing an important role in maintaining the shape and preventing leakage of the composite thermal storage phase-change material. Furthermore, the addition of Al₂O₃ significantly enhanced the rapid heat storage and release rate of NaCl-Al₂O₃ compared to pure NaCl. This encapsulated phase-change material demonstrated outstanding durability and rapid heat storage and release performance, offering an innovative approach to the application of salt phase-change materials in the field of high temperature rapid heat storage and release and encapsulating NaCl as a high-temperature thermal storage material in a packed bed system. Compared with conventional salt-based phase-change materials, the developed product is expected to significantly improve the reliability and thermal efficiency of thermal storage systems.

Capillary wicking characteristics play an important role in two-phase thermal management devices including heat pipes and vapor chambers, yet three-dimensional (3D) pore-scale simulations of the dynamic capillary wicking process on various micro-structured surfaces have been rare. In this paper, we conduct 3D pore-scale simulations of capillary wicking on three commonly used micro-structured wicks including micro-pillar array, micro-channel, and sintered particles. The micro-scale liquid propagation dynamics and the “stick-slip” behavior of the propagating liquid front are captured using a 3D pseudo-potential multiple-relaxation-time lattice Boltzmann method. Based on the Lucus–Washburn approach and a work-energy approach, we theoretically analyze wickabilities of different micro-structured wicks. Effects of wick geometry and structural parameters on the capillary wicking characteristics are discussed. We demonstrate that an optimal pillar pitch distance exists, which maximizes the wickability of the micro-pillar array. We show that when the porosity is relatively low, the wickability of the micro-channel is higher than that of the micro-pillar array and the sintered particles. When the porosity is large, however, the sintered particles exhibit higher wickability than the micro-pillar array and the micro-channel. We also demonstrate that the capillary pressure of the sintered particles is always higher than that of the micro-pillar array and the micro-channel throughout the porosity range investigated. The numerical simulation results are compared with theoretical predictions. Findings in this work provide guidelines for the designs of porous wick in various two-phase thermal management systems for high heat flux devices.