• Santiago Madruga, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid

Research into phase change materials has accelerated in recent years due to their potential in renewable energy, applied science, and basic science disciplines. At the same time, the field is expanding into new research areas unforeseen in the past due to new sophisticated experiments, mathematical models, and access to increased computational power.

Phase Change Materials (PCMs) use the latent heat of the solid/liquid transition to store large amounts of thermal energy during melting or release it to the environment during solidification. They enable thermal energy management and storage units that are more compact and efficient than using sensible heat-based materials. Significant efforts are being devoted to harnessing these materials for energy storage, thermal management, or waste heat recovery, becoming a very dynamic field. In addition to these research fields, solid/liquid phase changes are at the core of several cutting-edge multiphysics technologies opening the area to new topics such as additive manufacturing, welding, thermoelectric generation, efficient batteries for electric vehicles, photovoltaic cooling, and enhanced heat transfer fluids.

We invite original research studies, reviews, experimental and numerical works, and application-based cases on topics where solid/liquid phase change plays a distinctive role in this mini-symposium. The MS seeks to provide a comprehensive overview of the rich landscape that phase change materials research has created across diverse disciplines.