SUMMARYHeat transfer barriers and other practical difficulties do currently hamper the development and application of (phase change materials) PCM-wallboard systems. In this study thermal performance of randomly mixed PCM and laminated PCM-wallboard systems have been numerically evaluated and results compared. The laminated system displayed up to 50% increment in heat flux enhancement and about 18% increase in heat transfer rates. Consequently, the laminated PCM-wallboard system has greater potential for heating and cooling application in buildings than the randomly mixed system. Experimental validation and investigation into manufacturing techniques are however needed to establish the commercial viability.
SUMMARYExperimental evaluations of manufactured samples of laminated and randomly mixed phase change material (PCM) drywalls have been carried out and compared with numerical results. The analysis showed that the laminated PCM drywall performed thermally better. Even though there was a maximum 3% deviation of the average experimental result from the numerical values, the laminated PCM board achieved about 55% of the phase change process as against 48% for the randomly distributed drywall sample. The laminated board sample also released about 27% more latent heat than the randomly distributed type at the optimum time of 90 min thus validating previous simulation study. Given the experimental conditions and assumptions the experiment has proved that it is feasible to develop the laminated PCM technique for enhancing and minimising multi-dimensional heat transfers in drywall systems. Further practical developments are however encouraged to improve the overall level of heat transfer.
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