Development of a window shutter with phase change materials: Full scale outdoor experimental approach

Phase Change Materials in Transparent Building Envelopes: A Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) Analysis

“…The PCM thus decreases the blind surface temperature as well as the g-value of the system. Furthermore, the possibility of increasing the thermal inertia of the glazing during winter [16][17][18]26,51] could be achieved, thanks to the insulation properties of the PCM layer and to the possibility of taking advantage of the heat stored during the day for the release phase of the material.…”

“…Future research developments to make the system more adaptive and better performing during summer, and extending its use to winter and intermediate seasons may require the coupling of different panels (colours, thicknesses) filled with PCM with different melting temperatures and typologies; optimization strategies of light and solar transmittance can be obtained by fluidizing the materials in the panel using slurry PCM Limited scientific evidence in literature in relation to the durability of bio PCMs; sealing problem of the material in polycarbonate; the observed discontinuity in appearance of PCMs could limit architectural applications of transparent components containing PCM [18,26,29] Paraffin wax Effect of PCM integrated with the blinds of an aluminium shutter on the thermo-physical performance Reduction in the maximum indoor peak temperature; decreased heat flux Fast and complete melting of the PCM determines indoor discomfort conditions; introduction of an active ventilation system to improve the PCM charging and discharging processes Thermal inertia improvement using PCM in large glazing areas, which currently dominate architectural design Numerical model requires simplifications (a change in volume between solid and liquid phases is not considered)…”

“…• the geographical distribution of the studies, which also provides an indication of the climatic conditions of the study; • the climatic/seasonal distribution of the studies: winter season (37%) [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22], mid-season (10%) [14,15,20] and summer (50%) [13][14][15][16][17]20,[23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31] season periods; • the most investigated PCM typologies, that have been found to be paraffin wax (60%) [14][15][16]18,19,22,23,[25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35] and salt hydrates (20%) [12,13,…”

“…• in all the papers, the PCM had been macro-encapsulated in containers, that is, glass containers (70%) [12][13][14][15][20][21][22][23][24][25]27,[30][31][32][33][34][35][38][39][40][41], polycarbonate containers (20%) [16,17,19,28,36,42] and aluminium containers (10%) [18,26,29]; • the technologies had predominantly been characterised in outdoor test cells (57%) [14,15,17-22, 24-27,29,31,35] and through laboratory analysis (53%) [12,13,17,20,23,[32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42], while some other studies had been carried out by coupling a modelling activity with an experimental activity (37%) …”

Energy efficiency and thermal performance of lightweight steel-framed (LSF) construction: A review

“…Several passive PCM-based TES solutions for buildings have been studied during the last decades, for both opaque and window facades, such as PCM enhanced drywalls [2,[89][90][91][92][93][94][95][96][97][98][99][100][101][102][103][104], SSPCM elements [105][106][107][108][109][110][111][112][113][114][115][116][117][118][119][120], PCM-based ventilated facades [121][122][123][124][125][126], PCM-shutters and PCM-window blinds systems [127][128][129][130][131], interior sun protections with PCMs [132,133], translucent PCM walls [134]…”