Thermal shielding of multilayer walls with phase change materials under different transient boundary conditions

A numerical model is presented to determine the thermal shielding performance of an exterior wall (e.g., building envelope) containing layers of PCMs. The model is exploited to perform a parametric study to assess the influence of the position and melting temperature of one PCM layer. Results showed that benefits are to be expected when the interior and exterior temperatures are close. Then, the wall composition has been optimized with a genetic algorithm based on a yearly analysis with the possibility of including several PCM layers. Idealized weather conditions and measured weather conditions (including solar radiation) have been considered. Results showed that for Quebec City, optimal south-facing wall includes one PCM layer when real weather data are considered. Its effect is to shield the heat transfer in the summer. This paper provides a fundamental understanding of multilayer walls with PCMs. (C) 2009 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.