Experimental and numerical study of a novel interlayer ventilation phase change wall: Energy storage parameters and annual load characteristics

• Published in: Energy and buildings 2024-12, Vol.324, p.114906, Article 114906
• Main Authors: Fan, Zhixuan, Jiang, Lina, Zhao, Yunchao, Gao, Yafeng, Bai, Xianjin, Dong, Shiqian
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cooling and heating loads; Interlayer ventilation; Phase change wall; Thermal performance
• ISSN: 0378-7788
• DOI: 10.1016/j.enbuild.2024.114906

In subtropical regions, phase change walls tend to release heat into rooms during nighttime, reducing building energy efficiency. In this work, we proposed an interlayer ventilation phase change wall (IVPCW) to address this challenge. The thermal performance, thermal storage influencing factors, annual cooling and heating loads, and energy saving potentials of IVPCW were analyzed by experiment and numerical simulation. The results show that: (i) IVPCW has the best thermal performance under non-air-conditioning and air-conditioning among ordinary wall, phase change wall, and IVPCW. (ii) Increasing the density and latent heat of CPCM and decreasing the thermal conductivity of CPCM can reduce daily heat gain (DHG). Moreover, the density impacts DHG more than latent heat, while latent heat surpasses thermal conductivity in influencing DHG. (iii) The annual load of IVPCW is reduced by 62.8% compared with PCW. (iv)The annual load of IVPCW is reduced by 41.6% compared with insulation enhanced wall (IEW) in Ganzhou, and 39.2% lower than that of IEW in Guangzhou. The findings offer theoretical support to aid in the implementation and performance optimization of IVPCW systems.