The present paper is the first comprehensive review of the integration of phase change materials in building walls. Many considerations are discussed in this paper including physical considerations about building envelope and phase change material, phase change material integration and thermophysical property measurements and various experimental and numerical studies concerning the integration. Even if the integrated phase change material have a good potential for reducing energy demand, further investigations are needed to really assess their use.

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A review on phase change materials integrated in building walls

Review of passive PCM latent heat thermal energy storage systems towards buildings’ energy efficiency

Phase Change Materials for Building Applications: A State-of-the-Art Review

Globally, buildings are responsible for 40% of the total world annual energy consumption which is responsible for one-third of green house gas emissions around the world. A significant portion of this energy is used for lighting, heating, cooling, and air conditioning purposes in buildings. Increasing awareness of the environmental impact of green house gas emissions and CFCs triggered a renewed interest in environmentally friendly cooling, and heating technologies for buildings. Free cooling of buildings may be seen as an alternate to compressor based air conditioning systems used for the buildings. In free cooling, nighttime cold is accumulated in storage material and extracted when needed. Latent heat storage using phase change materials (PCMs) can be used for free-cooling purposes due to their high storage density. In free cooling, using PCM as storage material, cool air during night is used to solidify the PCM and the accumulated cold is extracted during the hot day times. In this article a detailed review of work conducted by different researchers on PCM based free cooling is presented. Major challenges being faced in the design of PCM based free cooling system such as phase change materials; their thermo-physical properties and the geometry of encapsulation are elaborated and discussed in detail. Also the parameters effecting the charging and discharging of PCM, effect of phase change temperature and climatic conditions on thermal performance of the free cooling system are also discussed. Potential reduction in CO2 emissions due to the applicability of free cooling systems in residential and commercial buildings is also discussed in this article. This paper also provides a comprehensive list of the PCMs currently being used and that can be used potentially for free cooling applications. At last, this paper also presents some current problems needed further research in this area.

Phase change material (PCM) storage for free cooling of buildings—A review

Dynamic characteristics and energy performance of buildings using phase change materials: A review

A new kind of phase change material (PCM) for energy-storing wallboard

Research on performance of passive heat supply tower based on the back propagation neural network

Research on a push-pull industrial trough-side exhaust hood based on CFD simulation and experiment.

This research paper focuses on the greenhouse that needs additional heat at night to insure an inside air temperature above 20℃, and applies a new type of shape-stabilized phase change material (PCM) composite wallboard to the inner surface of the north wall of the greenhouse. Through establishing the model of phase change greenhouse basing on the theory of phase change heat transfer, we research the influence of solar radiation and environment temperature on the heat transfer process in the greenhouse. We optimize the phase change temperature and enthalpy of PCM, and research the energy-saving characteristics of the greenhouses that adopt PCM wallboards during the winter season. The results show that when the phase change temperature of PCM is 26℃, the enthalpy is 60kJ/kg and the mix ratio is 40%. The energy conservation rate of the greenhouse can reach 20% during the winter.

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Haifeng Guo

Papers

A new kind of phase change material (PCM) for energy-storing wallboard

Research on performance of passive heat supply tower based on the back propagation neural network

Research on a push-pull industrial trough-side exhaust hood based on CFD simulation and experiment.

An Application of Phase Change Technology in a Greenhouse

An investigation into the cooling effect of air desuperheater tower: A novel method to mitigate the heat island effect