Abstract
Phase change materials (PCM) in the construction industry became attractive because of several interesting attributes, such as thermo-physical parameters, open air atmospheric condition usage, cost and the duty structure requirement. Thermal performance optimization of PCMs in terms of proficient storage of a large amount of heat or cold in a finite volume remains a challenging task. Implementation of PCMs in buildings to achieve thermal comfort for a specific climatic condition in Iraq is our main focus. From this standpoint, the present paper reports the experimental and numerical results on the lowering of heat flux inside a residential building using PCM, which is composed of oil (40%) and wax (60%). This PCM (paraffin), being plentiful and cost-effective, is extracted locally from waste petroleum products in Iraq. Experiments are performed with two rooms of identical internal dimensions in the presence and absence of PCM. A two-dimensional numerical transient heat transfer model is developed and solved using the finite difference method. A relatively simple geometry is chosen to initially verify the numerical solution procedure by incorporating in the computer program two-dimensional elliptic flows. It is demonstrated that the heat flux inside the room containing PCM is remarkably lower than the one devoid of PCM.
Highlights
Over the years, it has been established that thermal energy storage systems (TESSs) with phase change materials (PCMs) can efficiently reduce the excessive usage of fossil fuels and subsequent global warming [1,2]
Depending on whether the PCM is completely solid or completely liquid upon entering the one-phase subroutine, this solution is run until the maximum nodal temperature within the PCM layer increases above the melting point or until the minimum temperature within the material drops below the freezing point
As shown in the figure, the temperature of the room without PCM is found to increase at τ = 12 h, reaches the maximum
Summary
It has been established that thermal energy storage systems (TESSs) with phase change materials (PCMs) can efficiently reduce the excessive usage of fossil fuels and subsequent global warming [1,2]. Employing PCM in a representative Mediterranean building, De Gracia et al [11] evaluated its environmental impact in terms of warming Three scenarios, such as different temperature control systems, different PCM types or different weather conditions, are emphasized based on the life cycle assessment (LCA) process. Kuznik et al [12] optimized the PCM wallboard thickness in lightweight buildings with reduced air temperature fluctuations inside the room, where the in-house numerical code CODYMUR is used to calculate the optimal thickness. In another experiment, Navarro et al [13] evaluated the PCM performance in terms of internal thermal gains.
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