Innovative PCM-Enhanced Concrete Tiles for High Performance Buildings

Abstract

The inclusion of Phase Change Materials (PCMs) in buildings has attracted large interest worldwide due to their ability to reduce energy consumption by stabilizing thermal excursions. PCMs have a high heat of fusion, which makes them capable of storing and releasing large amounts of heat during a phase transition. This paper presents an innovative concrete tile, produced by incorporating a microencapsulated PCM with phase transition temperatures between 23 and 26 ºC. Firstly, recent applications of PCM in concrete are discussed. Then, the design mix and several experiments about the incorporation of the new PCM-enhanced concrete are presented. After having described the process of tile design, thermal and mechanical tests are reported. The new concrete tile was hence used in a zero-energy house built for a Solar Decathlon. The use of the PCM-concrete floor tiles confirmed the reduction in energy consumption during the cooling period, and the increase in indoor thermal comfort. The inclusion of the PCM in this high performance building demonstrates the advantages of latent heat thermal energy storage in lightweight buildings. The challenge of controlling sun energy penetration, PCM cycles of charging and discharging, and the passive heat exchanges with the PCM tiles are discussed. Finally, some modelling results are presented to assess the impact of climate.