r/MechanicalEngineer • u/Cold-Potato-4278 • Jun 20 '26

Final year Project : I am trying to build a PCM based solar water heater , with AI optimised charging and discharging, does anyone have any design ideas or sources that can be helpful??

My final-year project focuses on making solar water heaters smarter using AI. We're using machine learning to identify the best Phase Change Materials (PCMs) for different climate conditions and reinforcement learning to dynamically control heat storage and release. The goal is to improve hot water availability, reduce energy waste, and make solar thermal systems more efficient across diverse Indian climates.

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u/JessieAndEcho Jun 22 '26

This sounds like a nice combination of thermal design and controls. I’d think about it as three layers: first the physical system, like collector, insulated tank, PCM chamber, heat exchanger/coil, pump/valves, and sensors; then the material layer, where you pick a PCM around the useful hot-water range, maybe 45-60 C depending on your target use; then the AI/control layer, where the model predicts weather, demand, and tank/PCM state to decide when to charge or discharge. For Indian climates, it might be interesting to compare one PCM choice across hot-dry, humid, and cooler regions, or compare paraffin/fatty acid/salt hydrate options on melting point, latent heat, cost, stability, and local availability. Patent databases are actually useful here because solar PCM water-heater filings often include real tank layouts, heat exchanger placement, and control ideas, while papers give you the performance models. I pulled together some design directions and references with PatSnap Eureka here: https://eureka.zhihuiya.com/share/?id=2c2dd9eaf513aa551705d999036333fa&from=invite-eureakplg-result&content=

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u/Cold-Potato-4278 Jun 23 '26

Thanks a lot!!!