thermal mass

thermal insulation

phase change material

heat storage

insulation materials

melting time

Energy and Buildings

In this study, an experimental and numerical work aims to analyze and investigate PCM capsules' use as an insulation material into the hollow bricks that form a wall. A novel model of plug and play wall system consisting of two identical rooms was designed and fabricated to test two southern walls with and without PCM in the outdoor natural condition. The mathematical model was used to investigate the novel wall's detailed performance, not just verifying the results. Therefore, a three-dimensional mathematical model using the FORTRAN language based on a finite volume scheme with enthalpy method was built and used to analyze the walls and natural convection inside the rooms. The numerical results were matched well with experimental measurement. Compared with the not treated wall, the results show that the encapsulation of PCM in the treated wall will lead to reduce the inner surface wall and room temperature by about 4.7 °C, increase the time lag by 2 h, reduce the temperature fluctuation by 23.84% and the decrement factor was 0.7.

Experimental and numerical investigation of PCM capsules as insulation materials inserted into a hollow brick wall