Thermal performance analysis of PCM components heat storage using mechanical ventilation: Experimental results

The integration of phase change materials (PCMs) in the building envelop is an efficient way to reduce the building energy consumption. To accelerate PCM components heat storage process and increase the heat storage quantity in the building envelope, the mechanical ventilation was used, and the heat storage process of PCM components and the application effect of the mechanical ventilation was studied by conducting relevant experiments. Changes of component temperatures and surface heat fluxes at different air temperatures and air velocities were analyzed, indicating that the increase of the supply air temperature and the supply air velocity led to shorter phase change periods and higher average surface heat fluxes. For the whole component, when the air temperature was increased from 34 °C to 40 °C at an airflow rate of 1 m/s, the phase change period decreased by 1.3 h. Changing the air temperature from 34 °C to 40 °C at 2.5 m/s provoked an increase of the average heat flux during the melting process from 33 W to 63 W. Considering the fan energy consumption, the energy-saving ventilation method was proposed and three new parameters (system energy saving, component energy utilization and system coefficient of performance) were defined to evaluate the energy saving potential of the PCM component.