Amaral, C.; Gomez, F.; Moreira, M.; Silva, T.; Vicente, R. Thermal Performance of Multifunctional Facade Solution Containing Phase Change Materials: Experimental and Numerical Analysis. Polymers2023, 15, 2971.
Amaral, C.; Gomez, F.; Moreira, M.; Silva, T.; Vicente, R. Thermal Performance of Multifunctional Facade Solution Containing Phase Change Materials: Experimental and Numerical Analysis. Polymers 2023, 15, 2971.
Amaral, C.; Gomez, F.; Moreira, M.; Silva, T.; Vicente, R. Thermal Performance of Multifunctional Facade Solution Containing Phase Change Materials: Experimental and Numerical Analysis. Polymers2023, 15, 2971.
Amaral, C.; Gomez, F.; Moreira, M.; Silva, T.; Vicente, R. Thermal Performance of Multifunctional Facade Solution Containing Phase Change Materials: Experimental and Numerical Analysis. Polymers 2023, 15, 2971.
Abstract
This work exclusively focuses on the assessment of the thermal performance of a multifunctional facade panel incorporating PCM in foam layers, recurring to a hot box heat flux meter method to determine the thermal transmittance (U-value). The experimental setup is based on the steady-state approach using climatic chambers, assuring a stable thermal environment. Even small fractions of PCM achieved a small reduction in thermal amplitude. Numerical simulations using Ansys Fluent were developed to evaluate the performance of PCM use over a wide range of temperature boundary conditions and operating modes. These numerical models were calibrated and validated using the results of experimental tests, achieving a correlation factor of 0.9674, thus accurately representing a real-world scenario. The decrement factor (f) was used to analyse the data. It was identified that the efficiency of the panel and size of the optimum region increased with the PCM fraction growth. The simulated behaviour was optimum when the input mean temperature is of 20 °C for a room temperature of between 18-20 °C. The results show the significant potential of the multi-layered panel and the thermal regulator effect of the PCM incorporated on indoor space temperature to reach good thermal comfort levels.
Keywords
multifunctional facade panel; phase change material (PCM); hot box testing; thermal transmittance; numerical simulations
Subject
Engineering, Other
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
