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A review on phase change materials integrated in
building walls
F. Kuznik, D. David, K. Johannes, J.-J. Roux
To cite this version:
F. Kuznik, D. David, K. Johannes, J.-J. Roux. A review on phase change materials integrated
in building walls. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, 2011, 15 (1), pp.379-391.
�10.1016/j.rser.2010.08.019�. �hal-00541875�
A review on Phase Change Materials Integrated in
Building Walls
Fr´ed´eric Kuznik
a,∗
, Damien David
a
, Kevyn Joha nnes
a
, Jean-Jacques Ro ux
a
a
Universit´e de Lyon, CNRS
INSA-Lyon, CETHIL, UMR5008, F-69621, Villeurbanne, France
Universit´e Lyon 1, F-69622, France
Abstract
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 envelop and
phase change material, phase change material integration and thermophysical
properties 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.
Keywords: Thermal Energy Storage, Phase Change Material, Building
Envelop.
Contents
1 Introduction 3
2 Source of articles and categories 4
∗
Corresponding author. Tel.: +3 3-472-438-461; Fax: +33-472-438-522
Email address: frederic.kuznik@insa-lyon.fr (Fr´ed´eric Kuznik)
Preprint submitted to Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews May 24, 2012
2.1 Source of a r ticles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.2 Categories of a rticles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3 Integration of PCM in building envelop: physical considera-
tions and heuristic arguments 6
3.1 Physical considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.2 Heuristic arguments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
4 Phase change theory 9
4.1 The phase change of a pure ideal body . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4.2 The phase change of a mixture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
5 Phase change materials used in building walls 15
5.1 Organic PCM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
5.2 Inorganic PCM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
6 PCM containment 19
6.1 The impregnation of building materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
6.2 The micro-encapsulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
6.3 Shape Stabilized PCM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
6.4 Other containers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
7 Measurement of the thermal properties of a PCM and PCMIBW 23
7.1 DSC: Different ial Scanning Calorimetry . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
7.2 The T-history method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
7.3 The guarded hot-plate setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
8 Experimental studies 26
2
9 Numerical studies 28
10 Conclusions 30
1. Introduction
As demand in thermal comfort of buildings rise increasingly, the energy
consumption is correspondingly increasing. For example, in Fra nce, the en-
ergy consumption of buildings has increased by 30% the last 30 years. Hous-
ing and tertiary buildings are responsible for the consumption of approx-
imatively 46% of all energies a nd approximatively 19% of the total CO
2
emissions [1]. Nowadays, thermal energy storage systems are essential for
reducing dependency on fossil fuels and then contributing to a more efficient
environmentally benign energy use [2].
Thermal energy storage can be accomplished either by using sensible
heat storage or latent heat storage. Sensible heat storage has been used for
centuries by builders to store/release passively thermal energy, but a much
larger volume of material is required to store the same amount of energy
in comparison to latent heat storage. The principle of the phase chang e
material (PCM) use is simple. As the temperature increases, the material
changes phase from solid to liquid. The reaction being endothermic, the
PCM absorbs heat. Similarly, when the temperature decreases, the ma t eria l
changes phase from liquid to solid. The reaction being exothermic, the PCM
desorbs heat. The integr ation of PCM in building walls is a way to enhance
the storage capacity of building envelop and then to rationalize the use of
renewa ble and non-renewable energies.
3
The number of articles concerning the PCM integration in building walls
(PCMIBW) has increased during the last five years. Then, this paper is
dedicated to a review of such PCMIBW. So, the part 2 deals with a factual
analysis of the papers f rom the literature. Some physical considerations con-
cerning PCMIBW and heuristic arg uments are given in part 3. The part 4
deals with some basics of phase change theory which is very important for
the understanding of heat transfers. A review of PCM studied in the liter-
ature is developed in the part 5. The integration of PCM highly depends
on t he containment, then the part 6 deals with t his specific problem. The
part 7 deals with the measurement of PCM and PCMIBW thermophysical
properties. The parts 8 a nd 9 of the paper are respectively dedicated to a
review of experimental and numerical studies concerning PCMIBW.
2. Source of articles and categories
2.1. S o urce of articles
Conference papers have been voluntarily omitted to avoid any duplica-
tions. Figure 1 shows the distribution of the number of articles since 1979.
Three phases can be distinguished: around 1980, between 1990 and 2000 and
after 2003. The first studies dealing with PCM integration into building walls
are dated from the 80’s (3 publications). Then, during the period between
1980 and 1990, only 2 articles have been published. From 1990 to 2 000, the
number of publications per year increase to about 1 publication per year.
After 2 003, an increase in the number of publications occurred (reaching up
to 14 articles). Almost 80% of the studies have been carried out over the past
8 years which have seen the development of new encapsulation technologies
4
