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In physics, chemistry, and other related fields like biology, a phase transition (or phase change) is the physical process of transition between one state of a medium and another. Commonly the term is used to refer to changes among the basic states of matter : solid , liquid , and gas , and in rare cases, plasma .
Latent heat is associated with the change of phase of atmospheric or ocean water, vaporization, condensation, freezing or melting, whereas sensible heat is energy transferred that is evident in change of the temperature of the atmosphere or ocean, or ice, without those phase changes, though it is associated with changes of pressure and volume.
When the phase change occurs, there is a "thermal arrest"; that is, the temperature stays constant. This is because the matter has more internal energy as a liquid or gas than in the state that it is cooling to. The amount of energy required for a phase change is known as latent heat. The "cooling rate" is the slope of the cooling curve at any ...
A phase-change material (PCM) is a substance which releases/absorbs sufficient energy at phase transition to provide useful heat or cooling. Generally the transition will be from one of the first two fundamental states of matter - solid and liquid - to the other.
The term is used in contrast to a latent heat, which is the amount of heat exchanged that is hidden, meaning it occurs without change of temperature.For example, during a phase change such as the melting of ice, the temperature of the system containing the ice and the liquid is constant until all ice has melted.
Likewise, ferromagnetic states are demarcated by phase transitions and have distinctive properties. When the change of state occurs in stages the intermediate steps are called mesophases. Such phases have been exploited by the introduction of liquid crystal technology. [8] [9] Ice cubes melting showing a change in state
In problems of heat transfer with phase change, for instance, conservation of energy dictates that the discontinuity of heat flux at the boundary must be accounted for by the rate of latent heat release (which is proportional to the local velocity of the interface).
However, if the specific heat changes, the LMTD approach will no longer be accurate. A particular case for the LMTD are condensers and reboilers, where the latent heat associated to phase change is a special case of the hypothesis. For a condenser, the hot fluid inlet temperature is then equivalent to the hot fluid exit temperature.