Review of the modeling approaches of phase change processes

In recent years, phase change materials have played an important role in the field of energy storage because of their flexibility and high efficiency in energy storage and release. However, most phase change processes are unsteady and highly nonlinear. The ways to obtain exact solutions are urgently needed. This study first summarizes the principles and characteristics of different methods to solve the phase transition process, including analytic methods, numerical methods, and CFD numerical methods. After that, the advantages of employing CFD software to simulate the phase change process are discussed, and the solidification and melting models in FLUENT are introduced. In particular, the influences and weights of natural convection and nanoparticles on the solidification/melting processes are revealed and enumerated in detail. Finally, the challenges and future developments in the solution methods, theoretical models, and numerical simulation applications of phase change materials are prospected. This review shows that most of the phase change heat transfer problems are solved by numerical methods. FLUENT is high-precision software commonly used in CFD software, its solidification and melting model is convenient to simulate the phase change process. Both natural convection and nanoparticles can shorten the melting time of phase change materials.