Developing new phase change material components to improve energy savings and comfort in buildings

Abstract

Paper presented at the 8th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, Mauritius, 11-13 July, 2011.

In many regions, it is sometimes difficult to reach acceptable thermal comfort without continuous energy consumption for Heating, Ventilating and Air-Conditioning (HVAC) inside buildings. This paper describes some strategies and some technologies to naturally improve comfort without or with reduced air-conditioning. These strategies are based on using Phase Change Materials (PCM) incorporated in building structures. The PCMs used in this study are described and characterized and a new composite material (polymer/PCM) is proposed. Among the several types of structures that have been studied, a brick filled with this new material has been chosen. The responses to temperature and heat flux variations have been studied. It is shown that the brick thermal inertia is strongly increased and that this construction component presents no PCM leaks.