Advances in Thermal Energy Storage in Buildings Incorporating Phase-Change Materials

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Materials Science and Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2021) | Viewed by 8327

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Civil Engineering Department, University of Aveiro, Campus Universitário de Santiago, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal
Interests: civil engineering; optimization algorithms; passive house; energy efficiency; phase change materials; thermal comfort
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Guest Editor
Environment and Planning Department, University of Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal

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Guest Editor
RISCO - Risks and Sustainability in Construction, Civil Engineering Department, University of Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal
Interests: advanced building physics; building technology; innovative building solutions and components; material testing; building simulation; sustainable construction
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
Faculty of Process and Environmental Engineering, Lodz University of Technology, ul Wólczańska 213, 90-924 Łódź, Poland
Interests: heat and mass transfer; energy systems; building simulation; daylighting and renewable energy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The European Green Deal sets out a plan for making Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050; in particular, by retrofitting buildings in an energy- and resource-efficient manner. In this framework, the European Union (EU) aims to improve the energy performance of buildings, since they account for 40% of total energy consumption, two thirds of which occurs in the residential sector, 36% of all emissions, 50% of all raw material extraction, and have the greatest energy-saving potential.

An attempt to make buildings more energy and resource efficient leads to a broad number of possible combinations of energy-saving strategies that can be improved using phase-change materials (PCMs). The incorporation of PCMs into construction solutions and components has consequently attracted the attention of the research community due to their capacity for energy storage, which allows for a delay of peak cooling and heating, the reduction of corresponding energy loads, and the reduction of indoor air temperature swing (the maximum and minimum attained indoor air temperatures).

This Special Issue intends to present a collection of studies describing the latest developments in the field of technological advances in applications of PCMs in building systems and construction solutions. It aims to provide an up-to-date overview of current research work and future trends in this field.

Topics of interest include:

  • development of novel phase-change materials;
  • modeling and simulation of phase-change materials and systems;
  • case studies of energy-efficient buildings incorporating PCMs (passive and active solutions);
  • phase-change materials for novel applications;
  • novel applications of PCMs in building solutions and components;
  • industrial applications using PCMs; and
  • reviews of PCM applications in buildings.

Dr. António Figueiredo
Dr. António Samagaio
Dr. Romeu Da Silva Vicente
Dr. Dariusz Heim
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • phase-change materials (PCMs)
  • energy-efficient buildings
  • thermal energy storage
  • development of new construction materials
  • dynamic building energy simulation tools
  • numerical modeling of PCMs

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 4485 KiB  
Article
Effects of Neglecting PCM Hysteresis While Making Simulation Calculations of a Building Located in Polish Climatic Conditions
by Anna Zastawna-Rumin and Katarzyna Nowak
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(19), 9166; https://doi.org/10.3390/app11199166 - 02 Oct 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1370
Abstract
The use of phase change materials (PCM) in different building applications is a hot topic in today’s research and development activities. Numerous experimental tests confirmed that the hysteresis of the phase change process has a noticeable effect on heat accumulation in PCM. The [...] Read more.
The use of phase change materials (PCM) in different building applications is a hot topic in today’s research and development activities. Numerous experimental tests confirmed that the hysteresis of the phase change process has a noticeable effect on heat accumulation in PCM. The authors are trying to answer the question of whether the neglecting of hysteresis or the impact of the speed of phase transformation processes reduce the accuracy of the simulation. The analysis was performed for a model building, created to validate the energy calculations. It was also important to conduct simulations for the polish climatic conditions. The calculations were conducted for three variants of materials. In addition, in the case of models containing layers with PCM, calculations were made both taking into account, as well as excluding material hysteresis in the calculations. In the analyzed examples, after taking into account hysteresis in the calculations, the period of time when surface temperature is below the phase change temperature of the materials decreased by 10.6% and 29.4% between 01 June to 30 September, for the options with PCM boards and Dupont boards, respectively. Significant differences in surface temperature were also observed. The effects of neglecting, even relatively small hysteresis, in the calculations are noticeable and can lead to significant errors in the calculation. Full article
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13 pages, 4725 KiB  
Article
Towards Improving the Durability and Overall Performance of PV-ETICS by Application of a PCM Layer
by Dariusz Heim, Anna Wieprzkowicz, Dominika Knera, Simo Ilomets, Targo Kalamees and Zdenko Špitalský
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(10), 4667; https://doi.org/10.3390/app11104667 - 19 May 2021
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 1746
Abstract
The main goal of the paper was to numerically analyse the risk of overheating of the Energy Activated External Thermal Insulation Composite System (En-ActivETICS) as an example of Building Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV). The analyses were conducted with the coupled power flow method (thermal [...] Read more.
The main goal of the paper was to numerically analyse the risk of overheating of the Energy Activated External Thermal Insulation Composite System (En-ActivETICS) as an example of Building Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV). The analyses were conducted with the coupled power flow method (thermal and electrical) for 20 European cities. All locations were analysed considering the local climate in the context of building performance simulation as well as electricity production. The obtained results allowed for the determination of the risk of overheating, which can influence system durability, accelerated thermal ageing, and overall performance. It was revealed that the risk of overheating above 80 °C is possible in almost all locations; however, the intensity considerably differs between southern and northern Europe. The effect of latent heat storage for better thermal stabilization and overall performance was determined numerically for all locations. Finally, the improved solution with a phase change material (PCM) layer beside the PV panel was proposed individually for specific climatic zones, considering the required heat capacity. The maximum panel temperature for improved En-ActivETICS does not exceed 85 °C for any location. Full article
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19 pages, 6499 KiB  
Article
Modeling the Evolution of Construction Solutions in Residential Buildings’ Thermal Comfort
by Inês F. G. Reis, António Figueiredo and António Samagaio
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(5), 2427; https://doi.org/10.3390/app11052427 - 09 Mar 2021
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2252
Abstract
The evolution of the construction sector over the years has been marked by the replacement of high thermal inertia mass constructions by increasingly lighter solutions that are subject to greater thermal fluctuations and, consequently, thermal discomfort. To minimize these effects, energy demanding space [...] Read more.
The evolution of the construction sector over the years has been marked by the replacement of high thermal inertia mass constructions by increasingly lighter solutions that are subject to greater thermal fluctuations and, consequently, thermal discomfort. To minimize these effects, energy demanding space conditioning technologies are implemented, contributing significantly to the sector’s share of global energy consumption. Enhanced constructive solutions involving phase-change materials have been developed to respond to the constructive thermal inertia loss, influencing buildings’ thermal and energy performance. This work aims to model the evolution of the construction over the last decades to understand to what extent constructive characteristics influence the occupants’ thermal comfort. For this purpose, typical and enhanced solutions representing distinct constructive periods were simulated using the EnergyPlus® software through its graphical interface DesignBuilder® and the thermal comfort of the different solutions was evaluated using the adaptive model for thermal comfort EN16798-1. The main results reveal that more restraining regulatory requirements are indeed mitigating thermal discomfort situations. However, overheating phenomena can rise, creating worrying consequences in the short-medium term. Thus, countries with mild climates such as Portugal, must pay special attention to these effects, which may be aggravated by climate change. Full article
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16 pages, 7434 KiB  
Article
Multiscale Modelling Approach Targeting Optimisation of PCM into Constructive Solutions for Overheating Mitigation in Buildings
by António Figueiredo, Romeu Vicente, Rui Oliveira, Fernanda Rodrigues and António Samagaio
Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(22), 8009; https://doi.org/10.3390/app10228009 - 12 Nov 2020
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1841
Abstract
Nowadays, the rising gap between the global energy supply and demand is a well-known circumstance in society. Exploring the solution to invert this tendency leads to several different scenarios of energy demand saving strategies that can be improved using phase change materials (PCM), [...] Read more.
Nowadays, the rising gap between the global energy supply and demand is a well-known circumstance in society. Exploring the solution to invert this tendency leads to several different scenarios of energy demand saving strategies that can be improved using phase change materials (PCM), especially in cold-formed steel-framed buildings. The present research reports the overheating (indoor air temperature above 26 °C expressed as an annualized percentage rate) reduction in south-oriented compartments and energy performance of a detached house located in the Aveiro region, in Portugal. An optimisation study was performed incorporating different phase change materials (PCMs) solutions and their position in the exterior envelope focusing overheating rate reduction and heating demand. The optimisations were managed by using a hybrid evolutionary algorithm coupled with EnergyPlus® simulation software. The overheating risk was reduced by up to 24% in the cooling season, for the case of the building compartments with south orientation. Thus, the use of construction solutions using PCMs with different melting temperatures revealed to be a good strategy to maximise PCM efficiency as a passive solution. Full article
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