Open AccessAnalyses of phase change materials’ efficiency in warm-summer humid continental climate conditions
Author(s) -
Jānis Ratnieks,
Staņislavs Gendelis,
Andris Jakovičs,
Diāna Bajāre
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
iop conference series. materials science and engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.179
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1757-899X
pISSN - 1757-8981
DOI - 10.1088/1757-899x/251/1/012119
Subject(s) - climate change , environmental science , climatology , phase change , phase (matter) , atmospheric sciences , geology , oceanography , engineering physics , engineering , physics , quantum mechanics
The usage of phase change materials (PCMs) is a way to store excess energy pro-
duced during the hot time of the day and release it during the night thereby reducing the
overheating problem. While, in Latvian climate conditions overheating is not a big issue in
traditional buildings since it happens only a couple of weeks per year air conditioners must still
be installed to maintain thermal comfort. The need for cooling in recently built office buildings
with large window area can increase signi cantly. It is therefore of great interest if the ther-
mal comfort conditions can be maintained by PCMs alone or with reduced maximum power of
installed cooling systems. Our initial studies show that if the test building is well-insulated (nec-
essary to reduce heat loss in winter), phase change material is not able to solidify fast enough
during the relatively short night time. To further investigate the problem various experimental
setups with two different phase change materials were installed in test buildings. Experimental
results are compared with numerical modelling made in software COMSOL Multiphysics. The
effectiveness of PCM using different situations is widely analysed.This publication is part of a project that has received funding from the European Unions Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No. 657466 (INPATH-TES)