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Improving indoor thermal comfort by using phase change materials: A review
Author(s) -
Abuelnuor Abuelnuor A. A.,
Omara Adil A. M.,
Saqr Khalid M.,
Elhag Ibrahim H. I.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
international journal of energy research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.808
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1099-114X
pISSN - 0363-907X
DOI - 10.1002/er.4000
Subject(s) - phase change , thermal comfort , phase change material , thermal energy storage , scarcity , environmental science , process engineering , architectural engineering , computer science , materials science , engineering , engineering physics , meteorology , thermodynamics , physics , economics , microeconomics
Summary Phase change materials (PCMs) have great potentials to be used in modern building materials to stabilize indoor temperature fluctuations for improving thermal comfort. This paper presents a comprehensive review on the use of PCMs in buildings to improve thermal comfort without increasing energy consumption. Concise discussions of the experimental and computational works reported in literature are presented. A special focus of this review is devoted to discussing different analysis methods and models used to test, characterize, and measure the performance of PCMs in modern building applications under different conditions. This detailed review also highlights the special attention given to organic PCMs, such as paraffin, due to their favorable properties, such as low price, chemical stability, non‐corrosiveness, and high latent heat of fusion. The review shows the scarcity of literature reporting the use of eutectic PCMs in building applications, despite their high volumetric storage density.