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An improved heat transfer model for building phase change material wallboard

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Abstract

For improving the accuracy of the effective heat capacity model and increasing the computing speed of the enthalpy model, an improved numerical model for phase change material wallboard was proposed in the research. This improved model was expected to combine the advantages of the enthalpy model and the effective heat capacity model. This improved model was firstly validated by the literature results, and then it was compared with the enthalpy model and the effective heat capacity model. Based on the simulation results from the improved model, it was concluded that the accuracy of this improved model was the same as the enthalpy model and higher than that of the effective heat capacity model. In addition, the computing speed of this improved model was much higher than that of the enthalpy model because of its much lower number of iterations.

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Abbreviations

c p :

Specific heat capacity/kJ kg−1 K−1

d :

Time step size/s

h :

Space step size/m

H :

Enthalpy/kJ kg−1

i :

Space node

j :

Time node

L :

Heat of fusion/kJ kg−1

m :

Number of space nodes

N :

Number of iterations

t :

Time/s

T :

Temperature/°C

T 0 :

Temperature value when enthalpy is 0 kJ kg−1

T c :

Center point temperature value of phase change temperature range

x :

Coordinate

δ :

Thickness/m

ΔT :

Half of phase change temperature range

ρ :

Density/kg m−3

λ :

Thermal conductivity/W m−1 K−1

c:

Center

l:

Liquid

m:

Molten

s:

Solid

sur:

Surface

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China under Grant No. 2016YFC0700102, the Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 51308104, and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities.

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Correspondence to Xing Jin.

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Jin, X., Hu, H., Shi, X. et al. An improved heat transfer model for building phase change material wallboard. J Therm Anal Calorim 134, 1757–1763 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-018-7357-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-018-7357-x

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