Evaluation of phase change material’s location in the wall building in thermal energy storage

This research numerically evaluates and simulate the heat transfer behaviors of wall in building. The purpose of this study is to identify the most efficient wall configuration according to internal and external climate conditions by simulation with Ansys Fluent Work bench. The simulation tool is created to evaluate both conventional front systems and those integrated with phase change materials (PCMs). The model is validated using experimental results from the literature for the PCM enhanced wall. The ventilated cavity wall model is also verified using Ansys fluent, a well validated and respected model for simulating thermal storage wall. The location within the wall assembly, the direction and the optimal thermal properties of PCM’s are then analyzed using the tool. The results show that pcm in inner wall has most energy saving and an optimized active multi-layer wall system can allow at least 30% of reduced heating energy consumption while avoiding thermal discomfort.

Keywords:

phase change material , thermal comfort , wall , energy building.