Experimental investigation and computer simulation of thermal behaviour of wallboards containing a phase change material

In the objective to define passive components for the light envelope of buildings, different types of wallboards containing a phase change material (PCM) were studied. The high storage capacity should enable the overall thickness of wallboards to be less than 5 cm. To lower the investment costs. the wallboards were made from commercial panels after a first attempt of using gypsum walls. Three types of wallboards were studied: (i) a polycarbonate panel filled with paraffin granulates; (ii) a polycarbonate panel filled with polyethylene glycol PEG 600; (iii) a PVC panel filled with PEG 600 and coupled to a VIP. An experimental set-up was built to determine the thermal response of these wallboards to thermal solicitations. Experimental results were compared to those obtained by a numerical simulation in which an apparent heat capacity method was used. The final results show that the last studied wallboard could be used in the test cells under construction and then validate the concept. (C) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.