2.2.Latent Heat Storage
Latent heat storage (LHS) stores thermal energy at the time of phase transition from solid to liquid or liquid to vapor in the form of latent heat of fusion and vaporization respectively.Phase Change materials (PCMs) have been widely studied and used for wide range of applications (A. Sharma, Tyagi, Chen, & Buddhi, 2009) due to its property of heat absorption and discharging during melting and solidification process respectively. Fig. 3 shows the temperature variation with the amount of stored heat. The temperature of storage materials is increased in the sensible heating and it became constant during the transition phase and stores large amount of energy at this time. Heating a material causes a phase change (usually melting), storing energy in the form of latent heat, commonly referred as latent heat storage process. The amount of energy stored E, in this case, hangs on the mass (m) and latent heat of fusion (λ) of the material.