Thermal stress reduction in cool roof membranes using phase change materials (PCM)

A considerable amount of energy is used in the building sector for air conditioning purposes. Additionally, the building sector contributes to the urban heat island (UHI) phenomenon which causes temperature rise in urban areas. Cool roof is an emerging passive cooling technology that can contribute...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Saffari Tabalvandani, Mohammad, Piselli, Cristina, Gracia Cuesta, Alvaro de, Pisello, Anna Laura, Cotana, Franco, Cabeza, Luisa F.
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Fecha de publicación:2017
País:España
Institución:Universitat de Lleida (UdL)
Repositorio:Repositori Obert UdL
OAI Identifier:oai:repositori.udl.cat:10459.1/60410
Acceso en línea:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2017.10.068
http://hdl.handle.net/10459.1/60410
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Cool roof
PCM
Optimization
Simulation
Thermal stress
Descripción
Sumario:A considerable amount of energy is used in the building sector for air conditioning purposes. Additionally, the building sector contributes to the urban heat island (UHI) phenomenon which causes temperature rise in urban areas. Cool roof is an emerging passive cooling technology that can contribute to reduce the cooling energy use in buildings and to mitigate the UHI effects in the urban area. Cool roofs and reflective coatings, despite of being effective in terms of reducing the cooling thermal loads in buildings and decrease the UHI, can suffer from extreme thermal stress which negatively influences their lifespan and performance. Thermal energy storage (TES) is a promising technology which can be applied together with cool roof technology to decrease the extreme thermal stress due to solar radiation as well as providing thermal inertia to the building. In this study, simulation-based optimization will be used to optimize the PCM melting temperature when integrated into a polyurethane-based cool roof membrane to reduce the thermal stress of the cool roof and also to improve the annual energy performance of the building. The optimization results showed that the application of PCM and cool roof technologies together can reduce the severe thermal stress of the cool roof membrane when the optimization objective is the annual thermal stress of the cool roof. On the other hand, when PCM melting temperature is optimized to reduce the annual energy needs, higher annual energy savings could be achieved with acceptable reductions in the cool roof membrane thermal stress.