Assortment of latent heat storage materials using multi criterion decision making techniques in Scheffler solar reflector

The Solar energy is a non-exhaustible type of energy that serve to the survivability of mankind and all the living beings on the earth. In recent time due to increase in population density and rapid urbanization, the entire world is facing enormous environmental challenges such as global warming, air pollution, imbalance of ecology, and many more. There is a necessity to sustain natural endowments with the help of advanced materials and technologies. In the research domain, the majority of them are looking for a mechanism that can be used for harnessing solar energy. Many types of solar devices such as solar panels, solar heaters, solar concentrators, etc. are in practice. The Scheffler reflector is used for the harness of solar energy at an advanced stage. Addition of a thermal storage unit in the Scheffler system, heating performance can be enhanced by extending the heat storage time. In this study, a comparative analysis of the thermo-physical properties of nine Latent Heat Storage (LHS) storage materials (generally used in solar applications) is carried out using three MCDM techniques: analytical hierarchy process, TOPSIS, and weighted sum model. These techniques are very useful in solving such problems, where we need to select the best option amongst the group having similar characteristics. Materials taken for the study are as: Di-Sodium Hydrogen Phosphate Do-decahydrate (Na 2 HPO 4 12H 2 O), Erythritol, Stearic Acid, Acetamide, Calcium Chloride Hexahydrate (CaCl 2 6H 2 O), Magnesium chloride hexahydrate (MgCl 2 6H 2 O), Malic Acid, Palmitic acid, and Lauric Acid. Results show that the three techniques are nearly yielding the same (slight deviation) ranks of the top materials (rank 1; Erythritol, rank 2; Stearic acid and rank 3; Na 2 HPO 4 12H 2 O) which can be used in Scheffler reflector for using the heat up to a longer period of time. This research work is novel in the sense that the selection of LHS material for Scheffler reflector using MCDM hybrid model is carried out for the first time. LHS material demand is expected to increase over time due to its more consciousness and stronger regulatory frameworks. Other MCDM techniques can be applied to select the best thermo-chemical substances which improve the heat-carrying capacity of the Scheffler reflector.