Thermal Enhancement of Walls Using Phase Change Materials

Abstract

Energy demand is continuously increasing globally. Fossil fuels are a major cause of harmful gas emissions and thus causing environmental pollution. Therefore, it is a dire need to introduce innovative techniques for energy storage and reduce environmental pollution. Different studies have shown that the building sector consumes 40% share of the total energy consumption. Phase change materials (PCM) are the latent thermal storage materials that have the capacity to store a large amount of thermal energy during its phase change from solid to liquid and vice versa. Structural materials of such kind offer one of the best options for the rapid development of energy-saving materials. This study focuses on the preparation of the model wall encapsulating the locally available PCM to develop thermal energy storage with the capability of storing thermal energy within the human comfort zone. Three locally available PCMs (Glycerin, Vegetable Ghee and Ferric Chloride hexahydrated) have been tested in a controlled environment. 2x heating cycle i.e. three hours heating cycle and two hours heating cycle have been conducted to study the performance and behavior of each PCM. The experimental setup consists of 0.7-inchdiameter steel tubes, embedded in the front wall with a concrete cover of 1 inch. The embedded tubes filled with the Glycerin, Vegetable Ghee and Ferric Chloride Hexahydrated to analyze their performance above quoted heating conditions. From the investigation of test results, it was concluded that PCMs have significant improvement in thermal efficiency and also did not have any adverse effect of all the used PCM on the model. Out of tested PCMs, the best performance was given by vegetable ghee that showed a drop in temperature for all the points i.e. T3, T4, and T5.