Search results for "phase change material"
showing 10 items of 15 documents
Analyses of phase change materials’ efficiency in warm-summer humid continental climate conditions
2017
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 tha…
State of the art thermal energy storage solutions for high performance buildings
2010
In this thesis, the general thermal energy storage solutions for high performance buildings have been comprehensively reviewed. Based on the properties of storage material, the thermal storage solutions can be classified into sensible, latent and thermochemical heat storages. Their categories, characteristics and certain applications have been systematically introduced. Special emphases are put on the latent thermal storage technologies. Different classifications of phase change materials (PCMs), i.e. organic-, inorganic-, and eutectic- PCMs, have been carefully presented with their particular features and material candidates. PCM applications can cover almost every part of the building env…
A Finite Difference Model of a PV-PCM System
2012
Abstract The performances of a photovoltaic panel (PV) are defined according to the “peak power” that identifies the maximum electric power supplied by the panel when it receives an insolation of 1 kW/m2 and the temperature of the cell is maintained at 25 °C. These conditions are only nominal since the solar radiation has a variable intensity and also the panel is subjected to thermal excursions; due to these reasons the real power efficiency of the panel is considerably lower than that obtainable in the nominal conditions. The study focused on assessing a method to reduce the peak temperatures of PV systems using Phase Change Materials (PCM). To this aim it was created a numerical model ca…
The impact of thermophysical properties and hysteresis effects on the energy performance simulation of PCM wallboards: Experimental studies, modellin…
2020
Abstract This paper presents a combined experimental and numerical procedure, developed to test the thermophysical behaviour of a real scale PCM wallboard, aiming at providing reliable data for the validation of building energy performance simulation tools. Data obtained from two experimental tests, conducted on real building elements integrating PCM undergoing complete and incomplete phase change, are considered for assessing the impact of thermal properties and hysteresis. A comprehensive comparative numerical analysis, performed by means of an in-house developed simulation tool, called DETECt, is carried out to investigate the reliability of several modelling and simulation approaches av…
On the Efficacy of PCM to Shave Peak Temperature of Crystalline Photovoltaic Panels: An FDM Model and Field Validation
2013
The exploitation of renewable energy sources and specifically photovoltaic (PV) devices have been showing significant growth; however, for a more effective development of this technology it is essential to have higher energy conversion performances. PV producers often declare a higher efficiency respect to real conditions and this deviation is mainly due to the difference between nominal and real temperature conditions of the PV. In order to improve the solar cell energy conversion efficiency many authors have proposed a methodology to keep the temperature of a PV system lower: a modified crystalline PV system built with a normal PV panel coupled with a Phase Change Material (PCM) heat stor…
A numerical solution that determines the temperature field inside phase change materials: application in buildings
2013
The use of novel building materials that contain active thermal components would be a major advancement in achieving significant heating and cooling energy savings. In the last 40 years, Phase Change Materials or PCMs have been tested as thermal mass components in buildings, and most studies have found that PCMs enhance the building energy performance. The use of PCMs as an energy storage device is due to their relatively high fusion latent heat; during the melting and/or solidification phase, a PCM is capable of storing or releasing a large amount of energy. PCMs in a wall layer store solar energy during the warmer hours of the day and release it during the night, thereby decreasing and sh…
PCM thermal storage design in buildings: Experimental studies and applications to solaria in cold climates
2017
Abstract As energy availability and demand often do not match, thermal energy storage plays a crucial role to take advantage of solar radiation in buildings: in particular, latent heat storage via phase-change material is particularly attractive due to its ability to provide high energy storage density. This paper analyzes the performance of a building-integrated thermal storage system to increase the energy performances of solaria in a cold climate. A wall opposing a highly glazed facade (south oriented) is used as thermal storage with phase change materials embedded in the wall. The study is based on both experimental and simulation studies. The concept considered is particularly suited t…
Influence of the exchange and correlation functional on the structure of amorphous InSb and In3SbTe2 compounds
2016
We have investigated the structural, vibrational, and electronic properties of the amorphous phase of InSb and In3SbTe2 compounds of interest for applications in phase change non-volatile memories. Models of the amorphous phase have been generated by quenching from the melt by molecular dynamics simulations based on density functional theory. In particular, we have studied the dependence of the structural properties on the choice of the exchange-correlation functional. It turns out that the use of the Becke-Lee-Yang-Parr functional provides models with a much larger fraction of In atoms in a tetrahedral bonding geometry with respect to previous results obtained with the most commonly used P…
First-principles study of nitrogen doping in cubic and amorphous Ge2Sb2Te5
2011
We investigated the structural, electronic and vibrational properties of amorphous and cubic Ge(2)Sb(2)Te(5) doped with N at 4.2 at.% by means of large scale ab initio simulations. Nitrogen can be incorporated in molecular form in both the crystalline and amorphous phases at a moderate energy cost. In contrast, insertion of N in the atomic form is very energetically costly in the crystalline phase, though it is still possible in the amorphous phase. These results support the suggestion that N segregates at the grain boundaries during the crystallization of the amorphous phase, resulting in a reduction in size of the crystalline grains and an increased crystallization temperature.
Transient guided-mode resonance metasurfaces with phase-transition materials
2023
We investigate transient, photo-thermally induced metasurface effects in a planar thin-film multilayer based on a phase-transition material. Illumination of a properly designed multilayer with two obliquely incident and phase-coherent pulsed pumps induces a transient and reversible temperature pattern in the phase-transition layer. The deep periodic modulation of the refractive index, caused by the interfering pumps, produces a transient Fano-like spectral feature associated with a guided-mode resonance. A coupled opto-thermal model is employed to analyze the temporal dynamics of the transient metasurface and to evaluate its speed and modulation capabilities. Using near-infrared pump pulses…