Applied Thermal Engineering 31 (2011) 1807e1815

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Applied Thermal Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apthermeng

Investigation of a small scale double-reector solar concentrating system with

high temperature heat storage
Chee Woh Foong*, Ole Jrgen Nydal, Jrgen Lvseth
Department of Energy and Process Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 7491 Trondheim, Norway

a r t i c l e i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 3 November 2010
Accepted 16 February 2011
Available online 1 March 2011

This paper reports on the testing of a small scale double-reector solar concentrating system with heat
storage. The main advantage of thermal heat storage is that the thermal energy is available also during
times when there is little or no sun shine. A well insulated heat storage should keep the heat for about
24 h. Many solar heat collection systems are based on transportation of heat from the focal point to the
storage by a circulating heat transfer uid. With a double-reector arrangement, the storage is heated
directly, and no heat transport uid is needed in this system. NaNO3 and KNO3 in 60:40 percent ratio
(mol%) were used as latent heat storage medium. The melting temperature of about 220
C is quite
suitable for cooking and baking purposes. Copper n was used to increase the heat transfer rate from the
heated top plate into the heat storage medium. The experimental results demonstrated that the melting
of phase change material occurred within 2e2.5 h and reached the temperature range of 230e260
C.
The latent heat storage unit has been analyzed numerically using a nite element model. Effective heat
capacity method was adopted to simulate the phase change process. The model developed in this study
is able to predict the experimental results quite satisfactory within about 15% error.
2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
Double-reector
Phase change material
Latent heat storage
Thermal charging
Effective heat capacity

1. Introduction
Solar cookers, which convert solar radiation to heat, have been
designed, developed and tested to cook foods since a few decades
ago. This is introduced as an alternative energy source to reduce or
solve the energy supply problem for cooking purposes, especially in
rural area that the people live without electricity. There is currently
a very large variety of solar cookers available, but most of them are
based on direct use of the heat by positioning the food container at
the focus point of the concentrator. A limitation of these solar
cookers is that cooking can only be done when and where the sun is
shining.
In order to improve from the drawbacks of the traditional solar
cookers, a system with phase change material (PCM) heat storage
has been tested. PCM stores heat in the form of latent heat, which
the heat absorbed or released when a storage material undergoes
a phase change from solid to liquid or liquid to gas or vice versa. The
thermal capacity of the system with a PCM medium is given by Eqs.
(1) and (2) [1]:

* Corresponding author. Tel.: 47 73550564; fax: 47 73593580.

E-mail addresses: adamfoong@hotmail.com, foongcheewoh@gmail.com
(C.W. Foong).
1359-4311/$ e see front matter 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2011.02.026

ZTm
Q
Ti

mCp dT mam Dhm

ZTf
mCp dT

(1)

Tm


i
h
Q m Csp Tm  Ti am Dhm Clp Tf  Tm

(2)

where Q is the quantity of heat stored, m is the mass of PCM, Csp is

the average specic heat between Ti and Tm, Tm is the melting
temperature, Ti is the initial temperature, am is the fraction melted,
Dhm is the heat of fusion per unit mass, Clp is the average heat
capacity between Tm and Tf, and Tf is the nal temperature.
PCM stores 5e14 times more heat per unit volume than sensible
heat storage materials such as water, masonry or rock. In addition,
PCM absorbs and releases heat at a nearly constant temperature [1].
A large number of PCMs are known and have been tested. The main
criteria for selection of PCM in latent heat thermal storage is given
by Francis et al. [2].
Sodium nitrate (NaNO3) and potassium nitrate (KNO3) are
inorganic PCMs. The heat capacity and thermophysical data of
these nitrate salts are available in the literatures. NaNO3 and KNO3
have the melting point of 310
C and 330
C respectively [3,4]. The
molten salt consisting of NaNO3 and KNO3, or so called solar salt,
has been used successfully as a thermal energy transport and
storage uid in solar thermal power plants [5,6]. In addition, it is

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C.W. Foong et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 31 (2011) 1807e1815

solar radiation
copper
top plate

a
Air

T1

copper fin

T2

Insulation
material

PCM

Insulation
material

T3

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the PCM test module; (a) copper top plate and n, (b) stainless steel container.

also interesting to note that the NaNO3eKNO3 binary mixture

might nd utilization in latent heat storage for cooking application
as the melting temperature is in a suitable range.
Low thermal conductivity is a major challenge in PCM applications. Various methods have been investigated to increase the
thermal conductivity of PCMs such as dispersing high conductivity
particles within the PCM, inserting a metallic matrix, impregnating
a porous graphite matrix with PCM, and other methods [7,8]. In this

study, heat penetration through copper n was investigated to

enhance the heat transfer into the PCM within the storage.
This paper reports the testing of a small scale double-reector
solar concentrating system with high temperature heat storage and
numerical simulations of the thermal charging process. The heat
storage is illuminated directly, no heat transport uid is needed in
this system. A well insulated heat storage should keep the heat for
about 24 h. NaNO3eKNO3 binary mixture is used as the latent heat

Fig. 2. Thermal measurement of the NaNO3eKNO3 binary mixture using DSC.

C.W. Foong et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 31 (2011) 1807e1815

Table 1
Thermophysical properties of the NaNO3eKNO3 binary mixture (60:40 mol
%), stainless steel, copper top plate and n used in the simulations.

NaNO3eKNO3 (60:40 mol%)

Thermal conductivity (W/m K)
Density (kg/m3)
Temperature  220
C
Temperature > 220
C
Enthalpy of fusion (kJ/kg)
Phase transition enthalpy (kJ/kg)
Stainless steel grade 316L
Thermal conductivity (W/m K)
Density (kg/m3)
Heat capacity (J/kg K)
Copper top plate and n
Thermal conductivity (W/m K)
Density (kg/m3)
Heat capacity (J/kg K)
Top plate surface emissivity

14

Value

10

0.8
1800
1700
108.67
31.91
19
8000
500

modified Cp
experimental Cp

12

Cp (J/g0C)

Thermophysical property

1809

8
6
4
2

400
8700
385
0.78

0
0

50

100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500

Temperature (0C)
storage medium. Thermal behavior of the binary mixture is studied
using differential scanning calorimeter (DSC). The latent heat
storage charging process is numerically simulated using a nite
element model. During melting of a PCM, a large amount of energy
in the form of latent heat of fusion is needed. This effect is added
into the phase change behavior simulation by using effective heat
capacity method. The simulated data are then validated with
experimental results.
2. Methodology
2.1. Preparation of NaNO3eKNO3 binary mixture
NaNO3 and KNO3 (grade GPR Rectapur, VWR) were used in this
study. Dried samples of NaNO3 and KNO3 were thoroughly mixed in
60:40 percent ratio (mol%) in a clean stainless steel container. The
container was then heated in a furnace at temperature of 350
C,
which is slightly higher than the melting points of both components. After the entire solid mixture was melted, the molten liquid
was quenched rapidly to room temperature. The process of heating
and cooling was repeated 5 times to produce a homogeneous
mixture of the two components [9,10]. Samples were taken and
crushed into powder form to determine the heat capacity and
thermophysical properties of the binary mixture using differential
scanning calorimeter (DSC).
2.2. Differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) study
A differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) series Q2000 equipped with a nned air cooling system from TA instruments was used
for the experimental measurement. The temperature scale was
calibrated using high purity reference materials of Indium and Zinc.
Heating rate of 10
C/min was used for the heat capacity
measurements. The sample mass was approximately 10 mg. All the
samples were hermetically sealed in aluminum pans to ensure
there is no loss of volatiles and the thermograms were recorded
under pure argon atmosphere at ow rate of 50 mL/min. The pans
Table 2
Heat ux equations as a function of time used in the simulation.
Time (hh:mm) Heat ux equation as a function of time
11:31e13:00
13:01e14:31

q (2  1011) t4 e (2  107) t3 0.0005 t2e0.4976 t 21 589

q 0.1607 t 22 297

Unit: q [W/m2]; t [s].

Fig. 3. Experimental and modied heat capacity of the NaNO3eKNO3.

and samples were weighed using Mettler Toledo XP6U ultramicrobalance with a detection limit of 106 g. The samples were
used without any further purication. Heat capacity and the
enthalpy of fusion of NaNO3eKNO3 mixture were measured by the
DSC in the temperature range from 32 to 496
C.
DSC is a well known method for the quantitative determination
of heat capacity and it has been proven as a suitable technique to
obtain reliable and accurate values [11]. It records the differences
between the enthalpy changes occurring in the sample and
a reference heated at the same temperature rate [12]. Sapphire was
used as reference material to measure the heat capacity. All the
experiments were done in triplicate and the mean values were
taken. Thermal behavior analysis of the NaNO3eKNO3 binary
mixture is essential for the numerical simulations.
2.3. Solar concentrator with thermal heat storage
A parabolic dish (coated with sun reective lm) with aperture
diameter of 1.2 m and depth of 0.185 m was used as primary
reector. For the secondary reector, a parabolic dish with aperture
diameter and depth of 0.3048 m and 0.0762 m respectively was
used. A hole with diameter of 0.28 m was cut at the center of the
primary dish to allow the reected rays from secondary dish incident onto the thermal heat storage unit which was located behind
the primary dish. More information about the design concept of
this system can be obtained from Foong et al. (2010a) [13].
A schematic diagram of the PCM heat storage (test module) used
in this study is shown in Fig. 1. The test module consists of
a container of 0.044 m internal diameter and 0.24 m height made of
stainless steel grade 316L. The wall thickness was 0.002 m. The
molten salt of NaNO3 and KNO3 was lled into the container.
A free space with air was left in the container for the possible
volume change during melting and solidication. Low thermal
conductivity of PCM is a common problem for the solideliquid
phase change heat storage system [7]. In order to increase the heat
transfer rate into the PCM, a copper n and a copper top plate of
0.003 m and 0.002 m thickness respectively were used. As shown in
Fig. 1, heat was supplied to the copper top plate from solar radiation
and the heat storage charging temperature proles for T1 to T3
were measured and recorded. T1 was 0.032 m from the top, T2 and
T3 were 0.09 m and 0.03 m respectively from the bottom. Aerogel
was used to insulate the test module. The experiment was stopped
when the PCM was fully melted (T3 above 220
C). K-type

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C.W. Foong et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 31 (2011) 1807e1815

Fig. 4. Experimental setup for the double-reector solar concentrating system.

thermocouple was used for temperature measurement and the

data were recorded using National Instruments CB-68LP data
logging system.
3. Numerical model
The simulations of the latent heat storage unit were carried out
using COMSOL Multiphysics 3.5a. The cylindrical storage with a n
insert is a 3D problem. However, for simplicity, a 2D model with
transient analysis was chosen to solve the problem. The solution of
the 2D model was assumed to be an approximation to the 3D

experimental study. If a 2D simulation compares reasonably well

with the experimental data, then the model can be used for optimization study instead of a more complex 3D model.
The governing equation for the heat transfer process within the
PCM is the energy equation for conduction and convection.
However, the effect of convection heat transfer within the PCM can
be neglected when the volume of PCM in between the ns is small
[14]. Therefore, there is no convective term in our case and the
energy equation for the analysis of thermal energy storage unit can
be simplied to conduction only, as expressed in Eq. (3) below.

rCp

vT
vt


VkVT

(3)

where r, Cp and k are the density, specic heat capacity, and

thermal conductivity respectively of the PCM.
During the heating of PCM, sensible heat is added until the onset
melting temperature is reached. In the phase change (melting)
temperature range, extra energy in the form of latent heat of fusion
is needed. This usually happens in a small temperature range [15].
After the PCM is completely melted, sensible heat gives a rise in the
temperature. Solving the solid-liquid interface is one of the major
problems in heat transfer calculations.
From the literature, there are two types of numerical methods
usually used to solve the phase change problem; the enthalpy
method and the effective heat capacity method. In this study, the
phase change problem is solved using the effective heat capacity
method. The effective heat capacity of the PCM during phase
change is given by Eq. (4) [15].

Ceff

Fig. 5. Direct illuminating of the PCM test module.

L
Cp
T1  T2

(4)

where L is the latent heat of fusion, T1 is the onset temperature of

the phase transition and T2 is the end temperature of the phase
transition.
Mixture of NaNO3 and KNO3 at 60:40 percent ratio (mol%) was
prepared and used as latent heat storage medium. The thermal
behavior of this salt was determined using DSC in temperature range
from 32 to 496
C. Heat capacity as a function of temperature is
shown in Fig. 2. A phase transition in solid state and a solideliquid
phase change peak were observed. The enthalpy of phase transition

C.W. Foong et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 31 (2011) 1807e1815

1811

Fig. 6. Infrared images captured using IR thermal camera; (a) outer surface temperature of the insulation material, (b) surface temperature of the secondary reector, (c) surface
temperature of the copper top plate, (d) surface temperature of the primary reector.

and phase change were calculated. Table 1 shows the thermophysical properties of the NaNO3eKNO3 binary mixture, the stainless
steel, the copper top plate and the n used in the simulations.
Based on the recorded solar radiation data during the experiment (see Fig. 7), the heat ux onto the test module was tted to an
equation as a function of time as shown in Table 2. Two time ranges

were chosen in this tting by using least square method. The tted
equations should have at least R2 0.9.
By using the effective heat capacity method to solve the phase
change problem, heat capacity of the NaNO3eKNO3 binary mixture
was modied and divided into 5 temperature regions. First of all,
we assumed that the phase transition and melting occurred within

350

850

Temperature ( C)

750

200
150

700
Temp 1

100

Temp 2

650

Temp 3

50

800
250

Solar radiation (W/m )

300

solar radiation
0
11:16

600
11:45

12:14

12:43

13:12

13:40

14:09

14:38

Time (hh:mm)
Fig. 7. Experimental temperature proles of the PCM storage test module at different positions during charging.

1812

C.W. Foong et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 31 (2011) 1807e1815

Fig. 8. Computed temperature prole of the PCM during charging process.

a temperature range from 110 to 120
C and 210 to 220
C

respectively. The phase transition enthalpy and enthalpy of fusion
were incorporated in the modied heat capacity which was stated
in Eq. (5).

0:75
4:1
Cp kJ=kg 1:4
12
1:6

T < 110
C
110
C  T  120
C
120
C < T < 210
C
210
C  T  220
C
T > 220
C

positions were investigated. Solar tracking system was not

installed in this study, manual adjustments were carried out
about every 10 min.
The surface area of the primary parabolic reector was
calculated and the value was about 1 m2. The solar radiation that
falls on the primary dish is reected and redirected onto the test
module by the secondary reector. Due to the safety reason, the
test module was not hermetically sealed by welding. A copper
top plate and screws were used to close the PCM container but
still allowing a passage and thus atmospheric pressure in the
container. Therefore, the thermal storage unit was charged
vertically as shown in Fig. 5 to prevent any leakage when the
PCM inside the test module is changed from solid into liquid
phase.
During the experiment, several thermal images of the system
were taken using an infrared camera. The aerogel used to insulate
the test module performed quite well as shown in Fig. 6(a). It shows
the pointed outer surface temperature of the insulation material
which was at 23.3
C while the PCM container by that time was
more than 200
C. Fig. 6(b) shows the pointed surface temperature
of the secondary reector was at 52.6
C. This means that the
surface of the secondary reector did not reect well and caused
the surface heating up. As shown in Fig. 6(c), the surface

(5)

The discontinuity of heat capacity as shown in Eq. (5) was done

in COMSOL Multiphysics using logic functions. A plot of the
experimental and modied heat capacity used in the simulation is
shown in Fig. 3.
After setting up the numerical method to solve the phase change
problem, a 2D geometry of the test module was drawn. The initial
and boundary conditions are as follow:
 The top plate surface is subjected to inward heat input (solar
radiation), convection and radiation heat losses.
 A constant room temperature at 23
C and the heat transfer
coefcient, h is assumed to be 35 W/m2
C.
 The initial temperature of the test module including PCM is
23
C.
 All other outside surfaces are thermally insulated.
The equations for the top plate convection and radiation heat
losses during the thermal charging process are given in Eqs. (6) and
(7) below:

q hTamb  T

(6)



4
 T4
q 3s Tamb

(7)

where h is the heat transfer coefcient, Tamb is the ambient

temperature, 3 is the surface emissivity (see Table 1), s is the StefaneBoltzmann constant.

4. Experimental results and discussion

The experimental setup of the double-reector solar
concentrating system with heat storage is shown in Fig. 4. The
charging temperature proles of the test module at different

Fig. 9. Computed temperature distribution of the PCM storage test module after 3 h
(numerical values are extracted along V1, V2, and V3).

C.W. Foong et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 31 (2011) 1807e1815

1813

Fig. 10. Computed axial temperature proles of the PCM storage test module at different positions (legend in unit seconds); (a) V1, (b) V2, (c) V3.

temperature of the copper top plate was around 330
C. This

temperature is well above the melting point of the PCM. Finally, the
surface temperature of the primary dish was around 27
C as shown
in Fig. 6(d) which means the surface reects solar radiation well
without much heating absorption.
Solar radiation and the experimental temperature proles of the
PCM at different positions during thermal charging were measured
and recorded. As shown in Fig. 7, the solar radiation various from
811 to 851 W/m2 during the thermal charging process in about 3 h.
Based on the previous experimental measurements, PCM and wall
temperature were assumed to be the same in this study. From the
data obtained, temperature T1, which was the air temperature
inside the storage, and temperature T2 and T3, which were the PCM
heat storage temperatures, increased with time. For T2 and T3, two
regions where the temperatures were observed to be almost
constant at around 110
C and 210
C. This is due to the solid phase
transition and phase change processes. The melting temperature of
the PCM used in this study is around 216
C. The temperatures T2
and T3 after about 3 h were around 262
C and 236
C respectively.
PCM at T2 was melted faster than T3 as heat was supplied from the
top and conducted down to the bottom through the copper n and
the stainless steel wall. After about 2 h of the thermal charging, the
PCM at T2 was fully melted into liquid phase. On the other hand,
PCM at T3 was fully melted after about 2.5 h. This also means that

the PCM in the test module can be fully melted within 2.5e3 h.
Higher thermal storage temperature can be achieved with longer
charging time. The PCM should be safe and stable up to 450
C. For
the thermal degradation behavior of this salt, Foong et al. (2010b)
[16] reported that the heat storage temperatures became almost
homogeneous after approximately 1.4 h due to the highly
conductive copper n that transferred heat within the bed. Two
regions with temperature almost constant were observed at the
same temperature range compared to thermal charging proles.
This indicates that the PCM is thermally stable during heating and
cooling processes. In addition, no supercooling phenomenon was
observed during the thermal degradation.
5. Numerical results and discussion
After the thermal charging experiment, a numerical study using
nite element model was carried out to simulate the test module
and the simulated results were compared with the experimental
results. Fig. 8 shows an example of the computed temperature
prole at a point in the PCM domain. It can be seen that the
temperature prole of the PCM during charging process is divided
into 3 regions which represent the solid phase, phase change
interface and liquid phase. The temperature rise in the solid phase
region and liquid phase region is due to the increased sensible heat.

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C.W. Foong et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 31 (2011) 1807e1815

350

250

Temperature ( C)

300

200
150
100
50
0
10:48

11:16

11:45

12:14

12:43

13:12

13:40

14:09

14:38

15:07

Time (hh:mm)
simulated temperature

experimental temperature

Fig. 11. Experimental and numerical temperature proles at T1.

Temperature between 210
C and 220
C was the phase change

region where the melting of PCM started at 210
C and completed at
220
C. The temperature gradient of this region was smaller due to
the large amount of energy, in the form of latent heat of fusion,
needed to melt the PCM.
Fig. 9 shows the temperature distribution of the PCM storage
test module after 3 h. The top plate surface temperature was around
315
C, which is quite comparable to the experimental results as
shown in the thermal images. In this simulation, air inside the test
module was assumed to be an inactive domain. In order to assess
the axial heat penetration, temperature proles V1, V2 and V3 were
computed and plotted as illustrated in Fig. 10. The results showed
that all the PCM in the test module was melted after 3 h regardless
of positions. The maximum temperature difference along the axial
direction of the test module was in the range of 30e40
C. It can be
seen that the highly conductive copper n helps to increase the
heat penetration into the PCM which results in higher PCM
temperature close to the n. As a result, PCM at position V3 was
melted after about 2 h which was faster compared to V1 and V2
that needed about 2.5 h to melt the PCM.
In order to validate the simulation results, the experimental
results were compared with simulated data. The temperature

proles of the points measured in the experiment were computed

and plotted. For temperature T1, the results in Fig. 11 showed that
the simulated temperature was above the experimental results.
From the data obtained, the model can predict the experimental
results within 15% error. In the simulation, all the outer surfaces
were insulated except the top plate. However, in the experiment as
shown in Fig. 5, insulation started from a few centimeters below the
ange down to the bottom of the test module. This may contribute
to a lower measured temperature compared to simulated results
due to higher heat loss as T1 was close to the area without insulation. On the other hand, the comparison between experimental
and numerical results for T2 is shown in Fig. 12. The solid phase
transition and phase change regions can be clearly observed in the
simulated results. The simulated results are in good agreement
with the experimental results as most of the experimental data are
within 10% error of the simulated data. For T3, the experimental
results were also in good agreement within 10% error of the
simulated data as shown in Fig. 13. The experimental and simulated
data were almost the same for the rst 45 min. For both T2 and T3,
natural convection heat transfer in the melted PCM was neglected
in the simulation. In addition, effect of thermal radiation within the
internal wall, n and PCM were also not considered.

300

Temperature ( C)

250

200

150

100

50

0
10:48

11:16

11:45

12:14

12:43

13:12

13:40

14:09

Time (hh:mm)
simulated temperature

experimental temperature

Fig. 12. Experimental and numerical temperature proles at T2.

14:38

15:07

C.W. Foong et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 31 (2011) 1807e1815

1815

300

Temperature ( C)

250

200

150

100

50

0
10:48

11:16

11:45

12:14

12:43

13:12

13:40

14:09

14:38

15:07

Time (hh:mm)
simulated temperature

experimental temperature

Fig. 13. Experimental and numerical temperature proles at T3.

6. Conclusions
The present study investigates a small scale double-reector
solar concentrating system with high temperature heat storage.
NaNO3eKNO3 binary mixture was used as the phase change
material (PCM) in the heat storage and the thermal behavior of this
salt was analyzed using differential scanning calorimeter (DSC). The
latent heat storage unit was modeled numerically using a nite
element model. Effective heat capacity method was adopted to
simulate the phase change process. The model developed in this
study is able to predict the experimental results quite satisfactory
(less than 15% error). With the given experimental setup, the direct
illuminating system was able to melt the PCM within 2e2.5 h and
reached the temperature range of 230e260
C. This temperature
range is quite suitable for cooking or baking purposes. The ultimate
objective of this study is to develop a small scale solar concentrating system with high temperature storage which can charge the
PCM thermal storage during day time and use it in the night time
for cooking purpose.
Acknowledgements
Authors are thankful to Erik Langrgen, Paul Svendsen and
Erling Mikkelsen for the technical support, Norwegian Research
Council for the nancial support, and the Department of Physics at
Norwegian University of Science and Technology for the solar
radiation measurements.
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