Delaying the temperature fluctuations through PCM integrated building walls-Room conditions, PCM placement, and temperature of the heat sources

Phase change materials (PCMs) are well accepted by the researchers to reduce the temperature fluctuation and also the cooling load of a building. Sodium sulfate decahydrate (Na2SO4.10H(2)O) is used as PCM and incorporated in the traditional building wall in a prototype building model. The experiments are carried out on hot sunny days to investigate the temperature variation inside the room with and without PCM. It has been found that PCM can easily reduce the fluctuation of the inside temperature, however, the temperature variation inside the room much is influenced by the opening of the door and window where convective heat transfer plays a major role. The study reveals that the maximum average temperature was reduced for 3 degrees C with the use of PCM layer. The studies have been extended for an elevated temperature by incorporating a heat source where the building wall is set without PCM, with PCM slab and also encapsulated PCM. The results reveal that both the PCM slab and encapsulated PCM building wall can control the temperature as close to ambient temperature at the opposite side of the heat source. Moreover, it is found that encapsulated building walls give better performance as the overall wall thickness is kept as original wall thickness. In addition, the evenly placement with the encapsulation in a building wall could maintain the melting/freezing cycle of the PCM materials for better performance.

Automated summary

Using PCM layer can reduce indoor temperature fluctuation, but the opening of doors and windows significantly affects indoor temperature variation, where convective heat transfer plays a major role.