Designing building envelope with PCM wallboards: Design tool development

The effective dimensionless numbers on the thermal dynamics of a PCM wallboard were identified. Moreover, the impact of the change of those numbers on the time required for the wallboard to become fully charged was evaluated. This parametric study provided a tool to characterize the required thickness of a PCM wallboard which needs to be charged during the off-peak. The tool presents the Fourier number as a correlation of Biot number and Stefan number. Moreover, the impact of melting range on the charging time of a PCM wallboard was investigated.