International Journal of Research In Science & Engineering
Volume: 1 Issue: 1
e-ISSN: 2394-8299
p-ISSN: 2394-8280
THERMAL MANAGEMENT OF BUILDINGS WITH THE APPLICATION
OF PHASE CHANGE MATERIALS
Karunesh Kant1, Amritanshu Shukla2, Atul Sharma3
1
Research scholar, Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology, k1091kant@gmail.com
Assistant professor, Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology, ashukla@rgipt.ac.in
2
Assistant professor, Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology, asharma@rgipt.ac.in
2
ABSTRACT
In the last hundred years the Earth has warmed by about 0.5 oC. There is strong indication that this is
due to an increase in the concentrations of certain trace greenhouse gases. Major amongst these is carbon
dioxide which is produced whenever fossil fuels are burnt to obtain energy. Globally, energy use, and the
associated carbon dioxide emissions, has been rising rapidly over the past few decades. Industry, transportation
and building are the three major energy consuming sectors, in which the buildings sector having the largest
share and the largest energy conservation potential. Phase change materials (PCMs) are the materials that could
store a large amount of energy in the form of latent heat at a constant temperature without any fluctuations or
variations in the temperature. This property of the PCMs finds its usage in many fields conserving energy to a
greater extent. The major application of the PCMs is in the building construction where it is used in several ways
to maintain either a constant temperature in the interior of the building or to store a large amount of solar
radiation as latent heat energy in it. In present investigation an experimental study is carried out in a test cell
with and without PCMs. The main discussion was made on the ruling of inner temperature fluctuations along
with the maximum energy of solar radiation that could be stored and retrieved later.
Keywords: Phase Change materials, Solar Energy, Latent Heat, Solar Radiation
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1. INTRODUCTION
1.1. The basis for energy efficiency in building programs
The energy utilization in buildings occupies a major share of the total final use of energy produced. In sectors
such as residential and the commercial the chief part of the energy intake takes place in buildings [1]. This
comprises of the energy used for regulating the temperature in buildings and for the building itself, moreover energy
used for appliances, other installed equipment and lighting purposes. In other sectors also a minor part of the total
energy produced is used for similar purposes with respect to the buildings. This is for example is the case for some
industry buildings used for management and buildings for agriculture and forestry purposes.
The working energy of buildings is used to uphold the internal thermal easiness for the residents and is a
major portion of the building’s energy intake. For most of the present buildings, the thermal comfort is achieved by
HVAC heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems [2-5]. Such buildings are stated as the active buildings in
order to distinguish them from passive buildings, which are made from energy proficient constituents or resources to
substitute the active HVAC systems and are anticipated to diminish the operating energy with the renewable energy
resources.
Industrial
30%
29%
residential
commercial
other sector
5%
9%
27%
transport
Fig-1: Share of final use of energy in percent.
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International Journal of Research In Science & Engineering
Volume: 1 Issue: 1
e-ISSN: 2394-8299
p-ISSN: 2394-8280
2. PHASE CHANGE MATERIALS (PCM)
2.1. Overview
PCM’s are latent heat storage materials [6]. The thermal energy transfer rises when a material changes from
solid to liquid, or liquid to solid. This is called a change in state, or ‘‘Phase.’’ Among thermal heat storage
techniques, latent heat thermal energy storage is predominantly attractive owing to its capacity to deliver high
energy storage density and its features to store heat at persistent temperature equivalent to the phase transition
temperature of PCM [7]. Phase change can be of the following types: solid to solid, solid to gas, solid to liquid and
liquid to gas and vice versa.
Fig-2: Latent heat storage
A large number of PCMs are classified as organic, inorganic and eutectic materials and are available in
different requisite temperature ranges. Initially, these solid liquid PCM’s behave like conventional storage materials;
their temperature increases as they absorb heat. Unlike sensible storage materials, PCM engrosses and releases heat
at a closely constant temperature. They store 6 to 14 times extra heat per unit volume than sensible storage materials
like water, rock or masonry [8]. A classification of PCMs is shown in Fig 3:
Fig-3: Classification of PCMs
In solid to solid transitions, the heat is deposited as the material gets converted from one crystalline form to
another. These conversions commonly have reduced latent heat and smaller volume changes than solid to liquid
conversions. Solid to gas and liquid to gas conversions have greater latent heat of phase transition, but their outsized
volume fluctuations on phase transition at approximately constant pressure are connected with the packaging
problems and rule out their potential usefulness in thermal storage systems. Solid to liquid transformations have
reasonably reduced latent heat than liquid to gas. Nonetheless, these conversions involve only a slight change in
volume of about 10% or less. Therefore, solid to liquid conversions have ascertained to be frugally attractive for
usage in thermal energy storage systems.
A large number of PCMs are recognized to melt with a heat of fusion at different required ranges. Conversely,
for their deployment as latent heat storage materials they should display certain required kinetic, thermodynamic and
chemical attributes. Furthermore, monetary considerations and easy obtainability of these materials has to be kept in
attention.
2.2. Application of PCM in building establishments
PCMs have been well thought out for thermal storage in buildings ever since 1980. With the introduction of
PCM employed in Trombe wall, shutters, wallboards, ceiling boards and under floor heating systems can be used as
a part of the building for heating and cooling uses. The application of PCMs in building can have two diverse goals.
Firstly, using natural solar radiation for heating and cooling of buildings and secondly, using artificial heat or cold
sources for conditioning of buildings. In any case, storage of heating or coolness is essential to match accessibility
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International Journal of Research In Science & Engineering
Volume: 1 Issue: 1
e-ISSN: 2394-8299
p-ISSN: 2394-8280
and demand in accordance to time as well as in accordance to power [9]. Fundamentally three different techniques to
use PCM for heating and cooling of buildings remain:



PCMs integrated in building walls,
PCMs in other building constituents other than walls like windows, ceiling boards, floor.
PCMs integrated in heating and cold storage units.
There are numerous ways to integrate PCMs into buildings to take the benefit of their great thermal storage
capability. They can be used in active as well as passive systems for heating and cooling purposes. In passive
methods, PCMs can be assimilated as distinct constituents in the building’s fabrication or incorporated straight into
building ingredients. Illustrations of PCM as a distinct component comprises of PCM panels mounted underneath
finished floorings and sheets of macro encapsulated PCM pockets that are mounted in the walls behind the gypsum
boards [9]. Applications of PCMs in active systems have moreover been investigated comprehensively. Active
systems comprise of fans and pumps to translocate energy into air or water, which assist as the working fluid to
transfer thermal energy. PCMs can be integrated to collect heat from the sun for future use when heating is required,
reducing the demand from active heating loops. Likewise, they can be used to engross heat that would or else
intensify the burden on active cooling loops. A simulation of a PCMs cool storage device was designed to assist
cooling of a passive house in Sweden and it was found that up to 22–36% of reductions of grade hours above 26 ◦C
were conceivable with the insertion of 50 to 400 kg of PCMs [10]. A ceiling panel was fabricated having parallel
internal channels for air flow and was made up of a composite containing about 27% of PCM. This showed
considerable clearance of daily alternations of air temperature when entering the room it was within the range of
thermal comfort environment, only because of the augmented thermal capacity of ceiling panel which were a part of
ventilation ducts [11].
3. MATERIALS AND EXPERIMENTAL SETUP
3.1. Material
Fatty acids (purity >98%) such as CA, LA and PA with an average molar mass of 172.26 g/mol, 256.42 g/mol and
200.32 g/mol respectively were supplied from the Burgoyne Pvt. Ltd. company, used as promising PCMs for
research work and used without purification. Sharma et al [12] developed binary mixtures based on the identified
materials, which can be utilized as promising PCMs for building application. Authors identified the eutectic point
and along with many binary mixtures were developed in the lab. Out of these newly developed PCMs, only two
PCMs used in the present study i.e. CA–LA (80/20 wt. %)) and CA–PA (40/60 wt. %) to control the temperature of
buildings.
Sharma and Shukla [13] also conducted the thermal cycle testing of the developed materials. An
experimental setup to conduct similar type of experiment is shown in figure 4. After the liquid mixtures were
thoroughly agitated and were kept for freezing in cooling chamber of water cycling apparatus. After freezing of
these samples, Borosil glass test tubes were fixed within plastic stands and were placed into the fabricated
heating/cooling chambers. The cooling chamber was connected to a low temperature bath, which had ± 0.1 oC
temperature stability and ± 0.1oC temperature accuracy. By this low/high temperature baths, the liquid solution was
maintained from a temperature of 10oC to 80oC. For the thermal stability test, water was used as a heat transfer fluid
in both heating and cooling chambers. The heating chamber was filled with fresh water and a temperature up to
100oC was maintained.
The thermal properties of the PCMs were obtained using a differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) at 2 oC/min at a
constant stream of nitrogen with a flow rate of 20 ml/min in the range from 0 oC to 50oC and presented as in figure 5.
Fig-4: Water bath instrument for cycle testing of PCM
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International Journal of Research In Science & Engineering
Volume: 1 Issue: 1
e-ISSN: 2394-8299
p-ISSN: 2394-8280
35
CALA-5-2H
CALA-5-2C
CAPA-9-2H
CAPA-9-2C
Heat Flow Endo Up (mW)
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
0
10
20
30
Temperature (oC)
40
50
Fig-5: DSC Result of CALA-5 and CAPA-9
3.2. Experimental Setup & Measurement
An experimental set up was developed to conduct this research work at in the laboratory. Setup is made of
plywood of length and width of 6 ft. and height of 8 ft. The test setup has two chambers upper chamber and lower
chamber. The wall is heated or cooled by atmospheric temperature. The solar radiation is incident on the complete
setup. Roof is covered with polyvinyl chloride sheet to protect the building during rainy season. PCM is put inside
the upper chamber. In the upper chamber, towards the right side there is an exhaust fan and opposite to that there is
an inlet hole for entrance of fresh air. PCM is puts in aluminum packets, which is placed inside the chamber. Four
thermocouples are attached with all inside wall and four are attached to the outer side of wall. One thermocouple is
attached to the top of the roof and one at the inner side of roof. For the circulation of air a fan is attached to the
ceiling as well as left wall of the setup. All the thermocouples are made of copper-constantan (t type). Another setup
of identical dimension is manufactured for testing without PCM which acts as the control with natural ventilation
and an exhaust fan. All the thermocouple wires are connected with Data Acquisition unit. A layout of the
experimental setup is shown in Fig. 6.
Fig-6: Test setup
At the evening time the exhaust fan is turned on in order to circulate the cooler air released from the PCM and it is
turned off in the morning time. PCMs cooled during night time because the atmospheric temperature is low as
compare to temperature of PCM. At the day time when ambient temperature increases the temperature of reference
box is also decreases but the temperature of box with PCM is decreases slowly as compare to due to application of
PCM in the boxes. All thermocouples are attached with the data acquisition unit. And temperatures are recorded for
24 hours.
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International Journal of Research In Science & Engineering
Volume: 1 Issue: 1
Material
e-ISSN: 2394-8299
p-ISSN: 2394-8280
Thermal Properties
Thermal Expansion
-6
Thermal Conductivity
o
Thermal Resistance
Density
o
Thickness
3
Plywood
4.5*10 mm/ C
0.13 W/m.K
8.67m C/W
500 kg/m
Aluminum foil
23.5*10-6 mm/oC
202 W/m.oC
0.004 moC/W
2700 kg/m3
0.014 m
0.02
Table-1: Thermal properties of plywood and Aluminum foil
4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The demonstration was carried out on June 30th 2014 and 9th July, 2015. The meteorological data (solar
irradiation, ambient air temperature, etc.) and ambient surface temperature during the demonstration were measured
with the help of Pyranometer.
(a)
(b)
Fig-7: Ambient temperature and indoor temperature variation of box with PCM and without PCM; (a) 30 th
June, (b) 9th July
It can be perceived that the indoor temperature of the room with PCM is lower than that of the box without PCM
during the daytime as shown in figure 7. For the box, without the implementation of passive building materials, the
indoor temperature could rise to from 35 oC to 45oC as a result of absorption of heat by walls and strong solar
irradiance on a south facing vertical exterior. While for building with PCM, the plywood as building material
absorbs solar radiation by conduction and convection processes increasing the indoor temperature of the room
during day time. This heat is absorbed by the PCM (combination of CALA and CAPA mixtures) placed under the
ceiling of the building due to high latent heat capacity. The combined application of PCM mixtures reduces the
indoor temperature to a comparatively adequate level, with a reduction of up to 25oC. After sunset, the heat stored in
the PCM pouches which are at higher temperature as compared to the indoor environment is released into the box.
This results into a higher indoor temperature in the box with PCM during the evening time. At midnight the
continuous reduction of ambient temperature results into freezing of the PCM material. This solid PCM maintains
the temperature of the building on the next day by absorption of the high solar irradiance and this cycle continues.
5. CONCLUSION
There are inherent drawbacks in the way things have been done so far in PCM based day cooling applications.
Two typical energy-efficient materials, CALA and CAPA, were assessed together in a passive building for the first
time. Their synergetic performance was demonstrated in a full-scale lightweight passive room. The indoor
temperature of a room with PCM was compared with that of a room without PCM. The results indicated that the
temperature of PCM box reduced up to 2-5°C lower in temperature than without PCM box. The results indicated
that the synergetic application could further improve the indoor thermal comfort degree than either of the individual
applications during the cooling period. It was also observed that the performance of the materials in the lightweight
building was much more superior to the feat in the heavyweight building. The assessment index provides a simple
and effective means to evaluate the performance of passive buildings from a complete perspective and is helpful to
evaluate the synergetic application of several building materials and/or components. With collaborative application,
the energy-efficient materials were not simply combined together but could interact with each other.
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IJRISE| www.ijrise.org|editor@ijrise.org
International Journal of Research In Science & Engineering
Volume: 1 Issue: 1
e-ISSN: 2394-8299
p-ISSN: 2394-8280
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