Evaluation of thermal performance and energy efficiency of a Trombe wall improved with dual phase change materials

Abstract

Trombe Wall (TW) as effective passive solar design technology can improve the building's energy efficiency and thermal comfort. TW may not be very effective alone. Adding Phase Change Materials (PCMs) to TW improves the efficiency to compensate for this shortcoming. In this paper, for better efficiency, a new double-layer Phase Change Material Trombe Wall (PCMTW) containing two layers of different PCMs with different phase-changing points on the exterior walls of the building was proposed. This paper aimed to compare the thermal performance of different models of double-layer PCMTW in different air gap thicknesses and different PCM combinations with a base state. The results show that classical TW with an air gap thickness of 20 cm reduces energy consumption by 34% in winter. The best air gap thickness for the PCMTW was 20 cm too, and the energy consumption was reduced by 39% in this air gap thickness. Also, there was little difference in the energy consumption of the three models in the summer, and the overheating phenomenon was solved by considering external shading. for solving this effect in summer, the best length of external shading was 50 cm.