FEM Applied to Building Physics: Modeling Solar Radiation and Heat Transfer of PCM Enhanced Test Cells

Ana Vaz Sá, Miguel Azenha, A.S. Guimarães and J.M.P.Q. Delgado
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Ana Vaz Sá: CONSTRUCT-GEQUALTEC, Civil Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal
Miguel Azenha: ISISE—Institute for Sustainability and Innovation in Structural Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, School of Engineering, University of Minho, 4800-058 Guimarães, Portugal
A.S. Guimarães: CONSTRUCT-LFC, Civil Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal
J.M.P.Q. Delgado: CONSTRUCT-LFC, Civil Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 9, 1-19

Abstract: In passive solar buildings, energy can be stored using either sensible heat materials or latent heat materials. Phase change materials (PCM) can contribute to temperature control in passive solar buildings when melting occurs near to comfort temperature required for building’s interior spaces. The use of finite element method (FEM) as a numerical methodology for solving the thermal problem associated with heat transfer in current building materials and PCMs make sense, as it is a well-known technique, generalized and dominated, however, still little applied to the domain of building physics. In this work, a solar model was developed and applied in order to simulate numerically the effect of solar radiation incidence on each face of the test cells (with different solar exposures) without neglecting the main objective of the recommended numerical simulation: the study of the action of PCM. During the experimental campaign, two test cells with distinct inner layers were used to evaluate the effect of solar radiation: (i) REFM test cell (without PCM) with a reference mortar; (ii) PCMM test cell (with PCM) with a PCM mortar. The temperatures monitored inside the REFM and PCMM test cells were compared with the values resulting from the numerical simulation, using FEM with 3D discretization and the explicit modeling of the solar radiation, and the obtained results revealed a significant coherence of values.

Keywords: phase change materials; finite element method; solar radiation; test cells; experimental campaign (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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