Abstract
Accumulating solar and/or environmental heat in walls of apartment buildings or houses is a way to level-out daily temperature differences and significantly cut back on energy demands. A possible way to achieve this goal is by developing advanced composites that consist of porous cementitious materials with embedded phase change materials (PCMs) that have the potential to accumulate or liberate heat energy during a chemical phase change from liquid to solid, or vice versa. This paper aims to report the current state of art on numerical and theoretical approaches available in the scientific literature for modelling the thermal behavior and heat accumulation/liberation of PCMs employed in cement-based composites. The work focuses on reviewing numerical tools for modelling phase change problems while emphasizing the so-called Stefan problem, or particularly, on the numerical techniques available for solving it. In this research field, it is the fixed grid method that is the most commonly and practically applied approach. After this, a discussion on the modelling procedures available for schematizing cementitious composites with embedded PCMs is reported.
Highlights
In the last century, the use of cementitious materials, like concretes and mortars, used as a base material for building and construction activities, has grown to vast quantities
The enthalpy-based method (EM) and heat source method (HSM) are the only choices to be followed in the case of isothermal phase changes and/or for those cases where a phase change occurs in a small temperature range
Some of them referring to specific topics from a material point of view, while others refer to the possible field of application of PCMs, like thermal energy storages, high temperature applications, solar water heaters, cold applications, and building accumulation solutions; numerical solutions for analyzing the so-called Stefan problem in phase change materials were reviewed and discussed
Summary
The use of cementitious materials, like concretes and mortars, used as a base material for building and construction activities, has grown to vast quantities. The existing building stock, as well as the majority of newly established buildings and infrastructure, are nowadays largely made of reinforced and/or pre-stressed concrete. Current endeavours are focussing on innovations that challenge the ability to reuse construction demolishing waste (CDW), saving energy demands while targeting a circular economy [1]. This trend has been embraced by the concrete industry, which committed itself to reducing its carbon footprint dramatically and turning its “grey” image into a “greener” and more environmentally-friendly one [2]. A significant effort still must be done in terms of enhancing the sector’s sustainability perspective by reducing its CO2 footprint, widening its recyclability potential, and by cutting back on its energy demands [3]
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