X-ray computed tomography tracking of the calcium chloride hexahydrate crystallisation process

The research conducted on phase change materials (PCMs) for latent thermal energy storages (LTESs) is continuously growing in terms of publications, highlighting the importance of this topic. In fact, PCMs present many advantages that could help the energy transition and reduce CO2 emissions, by enhancing the performance of existing systems and better exploiting renewable energy. Therefore, it is of crucial interest to develop new and reliable methods to control LTES. Differently from sensible thermal energy storages, in LTESs the stored thermal energy is not proportional to the temperature. To really have an insight into the level of charge of these storages, it is important to know the liquid fraction, i.e., the amount of the liquid phase with respect to the whole amount of PCM. X-ray computed tomography (XCT) is a technology that allows to non-intrusively "look inside"the materials. In the current study, it was used to analyse the calcium chloride hexahydrate crystallization. This t...