Experimental and numerical analysis of the energy efficiency of PCM concrete wallboards under different thermal scenarios

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate the energy efficiency of PCM-concrete wallboards using experimental and numerical approaches. First, a laboratory experimental work was performed to manufacture PCM-concrete mixtures with different proportions of PCMs. Then, an innovative bench test based on the transient plane source theory was used for the thermal analysis of the mixtures. Besides, numerical simulation by finite element method was carried and the confrontation of the numerical results with the experience has showed an excellent agreement. Accordingly, the numerical approach was validated and generalized for the study of PCM-concrete at macro scale under different thermal scenarios and PCM distributions (homogeneous/Bilayer/Matrix-inclusions). The numerical simulations highlighted clearly the role of PCMs in decreasing the indoor temperature of the different PCM-wallboards as well as the thermal fluctuations. Moreover, the time delay in the temperature peaks emphasized the enhancement of the energy efficiency of PCM-wallboards in comparison with a traditional concrete, especially for the case of the bilayer wallboard.