Thermal Performance Enhancement for Buildings using Phase Change Materials (PCMs)

Energy performance of phase change materials integrated into brick masonry walls for cooling load management in residential buildings

Phase change materials have important application value in the fields of heat storage, cold storage, and thermal shock protection of electronic chips. In particular, in the field of chip thermal shock protection, phase change materials can use the solid-liquid phase change process to absorb a large amount of latent heat, thereby suppressing the temperature rise of the chip and preventing it from overheating. At present, there are mainly three types of common phase change materials: organic, inorganic and metallic phase change materials. There exists significant difference in the thermophysical properties of the three types of materials, and their thermal control performance also have their own characteristics. This paper sorts out the main thermophysical data of the three types of phase change materials. Through theoretical modeling and analysis, the thermal control performance of these materials is quantitatively evaluated and compared. For typical chip thermal shock conditions, the three types of phase change materials are compared, and their typical characteristics are intuitively displayed. The research results can serve as value reference for the development of phase change thermal control technology for chips.

Building envelope systems that integrate Phase Change Materials (PCMs) are solutions aimed at increasing the thermal energy storage potential of the building envelope while keeping its mass reasonably low. Building envelope components with PCMs can be either opaque or transparent and can be based on different types of PCMs and integration methods. In opposition to conventional building components, these elements present thermal and optical properties that are highly non-linear and depend to a great extent on the boundary conditions. Such a characteristic requires the system development and optimisation process during the design phase to be carried out with particular care in order to achieve the desired performance. In this paper, a review of the existing modelling capabilities of different building energy simulation (BES) tools for PCM-based envelope components is reported, and the main challenges associated with the modelling and simulation of these systems through the most popular BES tools (among them, EnergyPlus, IDA-ICE, TRNSYS, IES-VE, and ESP-r) are highlighted. The aim of this paper is to summarise the evidence found in the literature of the latestdevelopment in the successful use of BES to replicate the thermal and optical behaviour of opaque and transparent components integrating PCMs, in order to provide the community of professionals with an overview of the tools available and their limitations.

Numerical simulation of thermal mass enhanced envelopes for office buildings in subtropical climate zones

Thermoelectric cooling (TEC) systems offer solid-state, eco-friendly alternatives to conventional refrigeration but suffer from efficiency degradation due to hot-side heat accumulation. This study investigates the integration of phase change materials (PCMs) with thermoelectric modules to enhance cooling performance and thermal stability. A hybrid TEC-PCM system was designed, fabricated, and tested using three PCM types (paraffin wax, lauric acid, and stearic acid) under varying ambient conditions (25°C, 35°C, and 45°C). Experimental results demonstrate that stearic acid PCM achieved the highest coefficient of performance (COP) improvement of 24% and maintained cold-side temperatures 5.7°C lower than conventional TEC systems. Finite element analysis using ANSYS validated experimental observations with less than 3% deviation. The hot-side temperature rise was reduced by 12% with PCM integration, extending transient cooling duration by 200%. These findings establish PCM-enhanced thermoelectric systems as viable solutions for portable refrigeration, electronics cooling, and battery thermal management applications. Keywords: Thermoelectric cooling, Phase change material, Peltier effect, Thermal management, Coefficient of performance, Latent heat storage

Evaluating the passive and free cooling application methods of phase change materials in residential buildings: A comparative study

Spectral optical performance of phase-change-material-filled glass-block system: Experimental evaluation and comparative exploration

Silicon photonics (SiPh) technology has facilitated the deployment of integrated photonics across different application domains, from ultra-fast communication in Datacom applications to energy-efficient optical computation in emerging hardware accelerators for machine learning. More recently, the integration of SiPh and phase change materials has created a unique opportunity to realize adaptable, reconfigurable, and programmable photonic platforms. In particular, the nonvolatile programmability in phase change materials has made them a promising candidate for implementing photonic memory cells and architectures. Accordingly, photonic memory systems and even in-memory photonic computing paradigms are on the rise, especially given their potential for improving data access in electronic and photonic processors. However, there are still many challenges in the design and fabrication of phase-change photonic integrated circuits, which need to be addressed. This article presents a comprehensive survey on the recent advances and challenges for the integration of phase change materials with contemporary photonic devices while focusing on the photonic memory application. In particular, we explore phase-change photonic memory from the material level to the architecture level by presenting an overview of different material-level characteristics of phase change materials with their optical, electrical, and thermal properties as well as their integration into SiPh devices and photonic memory architectures and their application for in-memory photonic computing. We also present a comparison with electronic memory and discuss open research challenges that must be addressed to further advance phase-change photonic memory towards successful integration into emerging computing systems.

Applicability of phase change materials for building envelopes in the U.S. according to ASHRAE standard

A novel method to evaluate phase change materials' impact on buildings' energy, economic, and environmental performance via controlled natural ventilation

A new system for the production and storage of thermal energy based on two complementary and different types of phase changing materials

Review of passive PCM latent heat thermal energy storage systems towards buildings’ energy efficiency

Optimization of tube arrangement and phase change material for enhanced performance of solar air heater- A numerical analysis

The study explores the state of energy efficiency in residential buildings in the city of Zrenjanin through an analysis of a survey conducted among 662 respondents. The results indicate a prevalent issue of the inability for collective investment in the energy efficiency of communal residential buildings compared to single-family homes. By using the Chi-square test of independence, a statistically significant relationship between the type of residential property and the presence of external thermal insulation was discovered. Additionally, a moderate dependence between the age of the heating system and the need for additional heating was identified. The research’s conclusion suggests the need for subsidies to improve the energy efficiency of residential buildings, especially multi-family complexes, to achieve sustainability and reduce energy consumption in the urban environment of Zrenjanin.

Integrating phase change material with building envelopes is an effective way to reduce cooling or heating loads, improve indoor thermal comfort and save building energy consumption. In this paper, the composite phase change material of sodium acetate and urea is prepared and its thermal–physical properties with different mixing mass ratios are investigated through experiment and T-history method. Moreover, the heat transfer model of building envelopes with phase change material is established and different phase change material locations in external walls for thermal insulation are compared based on integrated uncomfortable degree. The results show that (1) with rising urea mass fraction, both phase change temperature and latent fusion heat (enthalpy) decline; (2) strontium sulfate is an effective nucleating additive to decrease super-cooling degree for such phase change material solidification and (3) to improve indoor thermal comfort, it is preferable to put phase change material in the middle of external walls. Furthermore, the illustrative example of an office building in Chengdu indicates that phase change material insulation can lead to time lag and decrement for indoor air temperature variations. It also indicates that after inserting such phase change material into building external wall, the highest indoor temperature can be decreased by 7℃, leading to 60% cooling energy saving in one typical summer day. This work can provide guidance for building thermal design with phase change materials. Practical application:The studied sodium acetate–urea composite phase change material has been used as energy storage and thermal insulation materials inserted in envelopes for the demonstration project of low/zero energy consumption passive buildings in China.