This study proposes a simplified prediction method of heat storage amount of walls including Phase-Change Materials (PCM).
Chapter 1 introduces the purpose of this research. PCM contributes to the temperature stability in houses, and room temperature stability is related to heat storage amount of walls. In previous studies, calculation methods of heat storage amount of walls are established. However, these methods aim at walls without phase change. Therefore these methods cannot be applied to walls including PCM. Heat storage amount of walls with PCM is usually confirmed by experiment or difference calculation, but it takes a long time to execute these methods. Hence, this study proposes a simplified prediction method of heat storage amount of walls including PCM. Using the proposed method, there is no need to execute convergent calculations nor repeated calculations for several days.
Chapter 2 presents the method of prediction. Temperature change inside the wall and heat flux at the surface of the wall are assumed to be sinusoidal waves. Furthermore, it is assumed that phase change occurs at a particular temperature without temperature range. Heat storage amount is predicted by the latent heat, the thermal conductivity of PCM, temperatures of the inner and outer side of the wall, temperature gradient in the wall, and so on.
Then, Chapter 3 shows the comparison between the simplified prediction method and difference method. The accuracy of the method is confirmed by comparison. The prediction results show less heat storage amount and heat storage quantity under some circumstances. However, there is a strong association between the prediction result and the difference method result.
Some issues must be considered when predicting the heat storage amount of walls including realistic PCM. These issues are presented in Chapter 4.
