Hygrothermal and energy performance assessment of a passive building wall integrating PCM and bio-based hygroscopic material

Abstract

Phase change material (PCM) and hygroscopic material (HM) in building walls are promising passive technologies for temperature and humidity regulation, respectively. Integrating the two materials allows for hygrothermal environment regulation and energy savings. However, the joint effect of the temperature dependence of the HM's hygroscopic properties and the location dependence of the PCM's thermal properties has not been mentioned or demonstrated. This study experimentally assessed the hygrothermal and energy performance of a shell enclosed by a PCM-HM wall. Different wall scenarios were proposed to study the effect of the HM, PCM, and PCM's location. The results highlighted the dominance of temperature and the significance of the PCM on performance. For PCM walls, the thermal and hygric inertia were enhanced, the characteristic times of temperature/relative humidity were increased, and the variation was dampened. Under a sinusoidally varying climate, the peak temperature, thermal load, and fluctuations in temperature, relative humidity, and vapor pressure were reduced, and the peak temperature was delayed. Additionally, the repositioning of the PCM further improved the performance. When the PCM was repositioned from the outside to the middle, the temperature, relative humidity, vapor pressure fluctuations, and thermal load were reduced by 25.0 %, 45.8 %, 54.6 %, and 33.1 %, respectively, in warm to hot climates, and by 12.5 %, 63.6 %, 41.9 %, and 66.0 %, respectively, in cold to temperate climates. The PCM properties are important as the PCM in the PCM-middle wall has a higher melt fraction in the solid–liquid state, which utilizes more PCM latent heat energy and improves wall performance.