Experimental and numerical simulation study on the thermal performance of building envelope structures incorporating the solid-solid phase change material

Abstract

This work is an experimental and numerical study of the thermal performance of building envelope structures incorporating a solid-solid phase change material (S-S PCM), consisting in a cross-linked polyurethane designated as PUX-1500-20. This S-S PCM is capable of storing and releasing thermal energy via phase transitions within the human comfort temperature range, facilitating the temporal and spatial transfer of solar energy for optimizing energy efficiency. The primary aim of this work is to integrate the S-S PCM into hollow bricks used in building envelopes and to evaluate their thermal inertia through both experimental testing and numerical simulation. The experimental results demonstrate that the integration of the PCM effectively delays and decreases the indoor temperature peak. The simulation results also show that the incorporation of the S-S PCM into hollow bricks gives rise to a phase shift of 7 hours and a decrement factor of 0.38. In comparison with the thermal behavior of the building envelopes (hollow brick) without PCMs, our results provide convincing evidence of the important thermal inertia of these structures incorporating the PCMs, revealing their significant potential in reducing energy consumption of building.