Renewable Energy 150 (2020) 1127e1135

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Renewable Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/renene

Study on properties of phase change foam concrete block mixed with

paraffin / fumed silica composite phase change material
Yue Qu a, Jiayu Chen b, Lifang Liu a, Tao Xu a, c, *, Huijun Wu a, Xiaoqing Zhou a
a
Academy of Building Energy Efficiency, School of Civil Engineering, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou, 510006, China
b
Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Ave, Kowloon, Hong Kong
c €ping University - Guangzhou University Research Center on Urban Sustainable Development, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou, 510006, China
Linko

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: On-site renewable energy generation systems are installed for buildings to compensate for their energy
Received 24 March 2019 consumptions due to cooling and heating loads. Fluctuated energy load can significantly affect the de-
Received in revised form cision on the selection of renewable energy systems. This study developed a new phase change foam
21 August 2019
concrete with low thermal conductivity and suitable phase change temperature to shave the tempera-
Accepted 12 October 2019
Available online 17 October 2019
ture peak in summer and improve the economic feasibility of renewable energy systems. With the
adsorption method, this study utilized the fumed silica to absorb paraffin for the composite phase change
materials (PCM) formation. Through morphology and liquid leakage tests, this study found that the
Keywords:
Fumed silica
composite PCM with paraffin content of 45% (wt) had the best adsorption capacity and setting perfor-
Composite PCM mance. According to the scanning electron microscopy (SEM), metallographic microscopy and X-ray
Phase change foam concrete powder diffraction (XRD) tests, the proposed composite PCM and phase change foam concrete blocks
Heat storage have stable morphological structures and physical properties. Also, the differential scanning calorimeter
(DSC) showed the proposed composite PCM within the concrete have suitable phase change temperature
(about 41
C) and phase change latent heat (the endothermic process is 113.3 J/g and the exothermic
process is 112 J/g) to avoid building overheating in summer. Finally, the thermal conductivity and
heating experiments suggested the proposed phase change foam concrete blocks have low thermal
conductivity and strong heat storage capacity.
© 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction and research background
With the rapid development of urbanization, the building in-
dustry has become the largest energy-consuming sector and ac-
counts for about 40% of total energy consumption [1,2]. Various on-
site renewable energy generation systems, such as solar collectors
[3,4] and wind turbine [5], were developed by researchers to supply
energy for buildings. However, these renewable systems are often
economically infeasible due to unstable energy sources and large
peak energy loads. Larger generation and storage systems often
result in unaffordable capital investments. Therefore, stable and
shaved peak energy loads can significantly reduce the size of gen-
eration systems and effectively reduce their costs.
The heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) system is
* Corresponding author. Academy of Building Energy Efficiency, School of Civil
Engineering, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou, 510006, China.
E-mail address: beexu@gzhu.edu.cn (T. Xu).
responsible for heating and cooling loads of a building and accounts
for about 37% of the total energy consumption [6e8]. To reduce
HVAC’s energy consumption and buildings’ thermal loads, re-
searchers proposed "passive" design methods [9e12]. For example,
"Passive cooling" is a building design philosophy that preventing
the outside heat entering the building through the building enve-
lope design [13]. Organic insulating materials are the major solu-
tions for the building envelope "passive" design, but they have
several drawbacks, such as high flammability [14], potential
toxicity [15,16], and low mechanical strength [17]. Due to its porous
structure, concrete is often selected as the base for several heat
storage materials, such as expanded polystyrene [18], polyurethane
[19], oil palm shell (OPS) [20] and PCM [21]. PCM as a popular
thermal energy storage material can absorb a significant amount of
latent heat [22,23] without large temperature increase [24]. Also,
PCM is a versatile material that can be organic, inorganic or eutectic
mixture [25e27]. Therefore, many researchers reported that PCM
can be an ideal building insulating material for the building enve-
lope [28e32]. For example, Zhang et al. studied the thermal energy

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2019.10.073
0960-1481/© 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1128 Y. Qu et al. / Renewable Energy 150 (2020) 1127e1135
storage capacity of ordinary concrete and porous aggregated PCM
concrete and found that the concrete had an endothermic peak
according to the DSC test [28]. Xu et al. added PEG/SiO2 composite
PCM into the concrete block and reported a large improvement for
the indoor temperature [29]. Zhou et al. reported that lining PCM
on the interior surface of the walls and ceilings could reduce the
daily peak of indoor temperature by up to 2
C [30]. Castell et al.
placed PCM panels in the building compartment and reported 1
C
peak temperature reduction and 15% cooling load reduction [31].
However, PCM also has several potential problems, such as poor
thermal conductivity and stability, high flammability, undercooling
and corrosiveness [33e35]. Many researchers suggested modified
paraffin as an ideal PCM option since it has large latent heat, low
cost, high stability, and non-toxic and non-corrosive features
[22,26,36].
Based on these findings and requirements of PCM, this study
proposed to utilize foam concrete as the base for composite PCM.
Foam concrete is a lightweight environment-friendly external wall
material, which has been widely used as thermal insulation com-
ponents because of its low density and air-based thermal insulation
capacity [37e40]. However, the major challenge of adding PCM into
foam concrete is leakage [41e43]. To overcome such a problem, this
study introduced fumed silica as pre-treatment material for PCM.
Fumed silica is an insulating material with low thermal conduc-
tivity, high endothermic capacity and rich nanoporosity, which can
be used as carriers for PCM [44e46]. For example, Chen et al. used
fumed silica to adsorb 85% (wt) dodecane in short-distance cold
chain transportation and solved the PCM leakage issue [46]. In this
study, a paraffin/fumed silica composite PCM, which was made of
fumed silica and paraffin (melting point of about 44
C), was added
into foam concrete to resolve the liquid PCM leakage problem.
In summary, this study followed the “passive” building envelop
design to stabilize peak thermal loads of buildings by introducing a
new phase change foam concrete. The composite PCM was devel-
oped and mixed into the foam concrete to improve the concrete’s
thermal insulation and storage capacity. To investigate the prop-
erties of the proposed phase change foam concrete, different mass
ratios of PCM were examined by various morphology, stereotype,
and thermal properties tests. Section 2 introduces the preparation
and major tests of the proposed phase change foam concrete.
Section 3 discussed the materials’ features based on the test results.
Section 4 concludes the findings and implications of this study.
2. Experiment design
2.1. Raw materials and equipment
In this study, Paraffin (melting point of about 44
C) was pur-
chased from Hangzhou Luer New Material Technology Co., Ltd.
Fumed silica AEROSIL R106 (Degussa AG, Hydrophobic type) was
purchased from Xiaoguwei Drilling Laboratory Analysis Instrument
Cooperation in Guangzhou, China. Cement P$O42.5 (Conch cement
with a density is 3100 kg/m3) was produced by the Haimen Conch,
China. Hydrogen peroxide foaming agent was produced by Fujian
Yinzhou Wanke Coating Energy Saving Building Materials Co., Ltd.,
China. The polyethylene oxide (PEO) thickener was produced by
Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd., Japan.
Following equipment was used to prepare the raw materials
and conduct experiments. A triple-purpose constant temperature
water bath (HH-W600) with electric heating plate (DB-2B, man-
ufactured by Changzhou Aohua Instrument Co., Ltd.), an electronic
balance (YP5002, manufactured by Hengzheng Electronic Instru-
ment Co., Ltd.), a foaming machine (YH-FP50, manufactured by
Guangzhou Yongsheng Construction Engineering Co., Ltd.), a
constant temperature and humidity protection incubator (HJ-84,
manufactured by Luda Construction Instrument Co., Ltd.), an
electric constant temperature drying oven (101-00A, manufac-
tured by Liedong Electric Appliance Co., Ltd.), a differential scan-
ning calorimeter (DSC 204F1, manufactured by NETZSCH Co., Ltd.),
a metallographic microscope (BD-40S, manufactured by Shenzhen
Boshida Optical Instrument Co., Ltd.), an X-ray powder diffrac-
tometer (PW3040/60, manufactured by PANalytical, the
Netherlands), a high resolution field emission scanning electron
microscope (Merlin, manufactured by German Zeiss company), a
data collector (Agilent 34972A, manufactured by KEYSIGHT Co.,
Ltd.), and a thermal conductivity tester (Hot Disk 2500 s, produced
by Swedish Hot Disk Company).
2.2. Preparation of paraffin/fumed silica composite PCM
Fig. 1(a) shows the workflow of producing the paraffin/fumed
silica composite PCM. First, paraffin (melting point of about 44
C)
and fumed silica (hydrophobic type) were weighed and composed
with mass ratios of 4.5:5.5, 5:5, and 5.5:4.5. Put all samples into
beakers and move the beakers into a constant temperature water
bath at 70
C. Stir the sample with a glass rod until melt. After the
paraffin was completely melted (the liquid become clear), pour the
fumed silica while stirring. Keep stirring until the sample turns
white and no residue left (The process will take about 60 min). The
while powder is the paraffin/fumed silica composite PCM.
Label the paraffin/fumed silica composite PCM mass ratios of
4.5:5.5, 5:5, and 5.5:4.5 as (A), (B), and (C), respectively. Take three
filter paper sheets that labeled with A, B, and C, and weigh the three
filter papers. Place (A), (B), and (C) samples on paper A, B, and C,
respectively. Then place all filter papers together into an electric
constant temperature drying oven, adjust the temperature of the
electric constant temperature drying oven to 80
C. After 12 h, take
the filter papers out. Let the filter paper and the composite PCM
sample cool down to room temperature. Remove the composite
PCM and weight the filter paper again.
2.3. Preparation of phase change foam concrete block
Fig. 1(b) shows the process of manufacturing the phase change
foam concrete block. Fully mix the composite PCM and cement and
prepare a mixture of thickener and distilled water at a mass ratio of
1.5:1000. Pour the thickened water into the composite PCM and the
cement and stir the mixture until they form cement mortar. The
thickened water can prevent PCM from floating up to the surface of
the phase change cement and generating uneven mortar. Then
prepare the foaming water through mixing hydrogen peroxide
foaming agent and water at a mass ratio of 1:80. Apply the foaming
water in a foaming machine to produce white foam with a density
of 50 kg/m3. Then add the foam to the phase change cement mortar
and quickly stir until the white foam completely sank into the
phase change cement mortar. Pour the foam cement mortar as
blocks and cover them with fresh-keeping films. After curing for
seven days, the concrete will be ready for use.
In this study, seven samples with the composite PCM’s mass
ratios of 0% (wt), 5% (wt), 10% (wt), 15% (wt), 20% (wt), 25% (wt) and
30% (wt) were produced for testing. All samples were put into a
protective box and formed as 40 mm*40 mm*40 mm concrete
blocks.
2.4. Characterization of composite PCMs and phase change foam
concrete blocks
To investigate the characteristics of the phase change foam
concrete, several characterization tests were conducted. The DSC
curve of paraffin (melting point about 44
C) and composite PCM
 Y. Qu et al. / Renewable Energy 150 (2020) 1127e1135
Fig. 1. Process of producing the phase change foam concrete blocks: (a) fabrication of composite PCMs; (b) fabrication of phase change foam concrete blocks.
were measured by the DSC 204F1 differential scanning calorim-
eter. In the tests, the temperature was set between 20
C and 60
C
and the heating rate was 3K per minute. The tests covered all seven
samples with different mass ratios. For each test, 5e10 mg of
sample powder was put into an aluminum crucible with protective
nitrogen. The foam concrete samples were also examined with the
same equipment and experiment settings, except the temperature,
was set between 15
C and 65
C with a heating rate of 1K per
minute. The microstructure of fumed silica and paraffin/fumed
silica was observed with a high-resolution field emission scanning
electron microscope. Before scanning, metal powers were sprayed
on the surface of the samples for 30 min to enhance the surface
electrical conductivity. The pore structure of phase change foam
concrete blocks was observed with a metallographic microscope.
The XRD patterns of fumed silica, paraffin, composite PCM, and
phase change foam concrete blocks were measured by X-ray
powder diffractometer under room temperature with wide inci-
dence angle. The thermal conductivity of the phase change foam
concrete block was measured by a room temperature Hot Disk test.
Each test used two pieces of the same sample with the probe placed
in between.
2.5. Thermal properties test on the proposed phase change foam
concrete blocks
Fig. 2 shows the schematic diagram of the thermal performance
test of the sample phase change foam concrete blocks (40 mm *
40 mm * 40 mm). Before the experiment, glue the K-type patch
thermocouples to the upper and the middle surfaces of the foam
concrete blocks. The patches are used to capture the temperature
variation at their locations. Then place the blocks into a heat-
insulating mould and record the temperatures of the patches.
Heat the block bottom surface with a digital constant temperature
electric heating plate (a K-type patch need to be attached to the
heating plate to track the temperature variation). Multi-function
multiplexers need to be attached to the thermocouple and data-
logger to covert temperature to digital signals.
This study applied above experiment settings and examined
seven phase change foam concrete blocks with the composite PCM
mass ratio at 0% (wt), 5% (wt), 10% (wt), 15% (wt), 20% (wt), 25% (wt)
and 30% (wt).
1129
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Morphology and thermophysical properties of paraffin/fumed
silica composite PCM
Fig. 3 shows the PCM samples with paraffin content of 45% (wt),
50% (wt) and 55% (wt). As can be seen from Fig. 3, with the increase
of paraffin content, the agglomeration becomes more obvious.
Among them, the sample with 55% (wt) paraffin has the highest
agglomeration level.
Followed the experiment settings in Section 2.2, Table 1 shows
the results of a liquid leakage test. Based on the table, the composite
PCM with paraffin content of 55% (wt) has the highest leakage level,
while the sample with paraffin content of 45% (wt) almost has no
leakage. When there is excessive paraffin, the fumed silica cannot
completely absorb PCM and forms agglomerates. Therefore,
paraffin content of 45% (wt) can be a good stereotype for the sub-
sequent experiments.
Fig. 4 shows the scanned electron micrograph of fumed silica
and composite phase change material with magnifications of
10,000 times and 50,000 times, respectively. Fig. 4(a) and 4(b) were
taken before hydrophobic fumed silica compounding. It can be seen
from the figure that the hydrophobic fumed silica before com-
pounding has a diameter of about 15 nme30 nm in the form of a
non-independent single molecule. A clustered agglomeration of a
three-dimensional structure formed by the forces between mole-
cules. From Fig. 4(c) and 4(d), the apparent size of the composite
PCM formed by the composite of the hydrophobic fumed silica is
obviously increased and a clustered agglomeration of a stable
three-dimensional network structure having a diameter of about
50 nme120 nm was formed. This can be explained by the fact that
the paraffin was combined with hydrophobic fumed silica for two
reasons: (1) the nanopores present in the fumed silica have strong
capillary adsorption to paraffin; (2) the van der Waals’ force caused
by the strong adsorption of the methyl group at the hydrophobic
end of the fumed silica surface and the methyl group at the end of
the paraffin molecule. Therefore, the paraffin can be successfully
adsorbed by the fumed silica, and thus forms a stable structure.
Fig. 5 shows the X-ray diffraction patterns of fumed silica,
paraffin, and composite PCM. With nano-scale particle diameter
and low crystallinity, the XRD diffraction pattern exhibits a
"Steamed bun" peak between 20
and 30
. The paraffin and com-
posite PCM have strong peaks in the range of 15
e30
. The number
1130 Y. Qu et al. / Renewable Energy 150 (2020) 1127e1135
Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of thermal performance test of phase change foam concrete.
Fig. 3. Paraffin/fumed silica composite PCMs with different quality paraffin: (a) 45% (wt), (b) 50% (wt), (c) 55%.
Table 1
The weight of the filter paper before and after the liquid leakage test.
Name of the filter paper Original weight (g) Weight after 12 h (g)
A 0.82 0.82
B 0.82 0.83
C 0.81 0.91
of peaks and the corresponding diffraction angle are the same.
Therefore, it can conclude that the composites made of paraffin and
fumed silica are physically compounded without chemical
reactions.
Fig. 6 shows the DSC curves of paraffin and the composite PCM.
The DSC curve shows that there are two phase-change peaks in the
endothermic process of paraffin: (1) one solid-solid phase change
peak at a temperature of about 44
C and (2) one solid-liquid phase
change peak at about 46
C. The DSC curve of the composite PCM
also has two peaks. With the fumed silica, the composite PCM’s
phase change temperatures move forward, the area of phase
change shrinks, and the peak values decrease.
Table 2 summaries the phase change temperature and phase
change latent heat of the DSC curve. It can be seen from the table
that the latent heat of phase transformation in paraffin endo-
thermic process is 259 J/g and the latent heat of phase change in the
exothermic process is 260 J/g. The phase change temperature of the
composite PCM is about 41
Ce46
C; the latent heat of phase
change in the endothermic process is 113.3 J/g; the latent heat of
phase change in the exothermic process is 112 J/g. Compared with
paraffin, the phase change latent heat and lower phase change
temperatures of the composite PCM are significantly lower. The
theoretical value of the latent heat of phase change of the com-
posite PCM can be calculated with equation (1).
Hthe ¼ ð1  u%Þ,Hexp;u¼0 (1)
Where, Hexp;w¼0 is the latent heat of phase change of paraffin; u% is
the mass ratio of paraffin in composite PCM (u% ¼ 45%); Hthe is the
theoretical phase change latent heat of composite PCM. The theo-
retical phase change latent heat endothermic process of composite
PCM is 116.55J/g and the exothermic process is 117J/g. The relative
error for the endothermic process is 2.8% and the exothermic
process is 4.3%. The results suggest the measured values align with
their theoretical values.
3.2. Properties of the phase change foam concrete
Fig. 7 shows a picture of all phase change foam concrete blocks
with the label of content of the composite PCM at 0% (wt), 5% (wt),
10% (wt), 15% (wt), 20% (wt), 25% (wt) and 30% (wt). With the in-
crease of composite PCM content, the appearance of the phase
change foam concrete block becomes whiter and smoother. Table 3
shows the density of all samples. The density within the range of
560 ± 20 kg/m3 and the average density is about 560 kg/m3. Ac-
cording to China’s national standards for foam concrete (JG/T 266-
2011), the density of the standard foam concrete should exceed
1600 kg/m3, therefore, the phase change foam concrete satisfies the
density requirements for usage.
Fig. 8 shows the DSC curve of the phase change foam concrete
blocks. The figure suggests that similar to the paraffin and
 Y. Qu et al. / Renewable Energy 150 (2020) 1127e1135 1131

Fig. 4. Scanning electron micrograph: (a) Fumed silica  10000; (b) Fumed silica  50000; (c) Composite PCM  10000; (d) Composite PCM  50000.

Fig. 6. DSC curve of composite PCM and paraffin.

Fig. 5. X-ray diffraction pattern of fumed silica, paraffin, and composite PCM.

composite PCM, the samples have a solid-solid phase peak and a First, the chemical reactions result in water loss and creation of
solid-liquid phase peak. Due to the decrease of the content of the crystal water. The moisture in the concrete blocks was evaporated
PCM, the phase change temperature and peak values are decreased. during electrothermal oven drying, but the crystal water and hy-
Table 4 shows the measured phase change temperatures, latent droxide were generated during the process of mortar preparation.
heat of phase change, and the theoretical phase change latent heat.
According to the table, the phase change temperatures of all sam-
ples are between 35
C and 44
C and the phase change peaks are
between 38
C and 41.5
C. In the table, there is a large difference 3CaO , SiO2 þ nH2 O ¼ xCaO , SiO2 , yH2 O þ ð3  xÞCaðOHÞ2
between the measured and theoretical latent heat. This can be
(2)
explained by two reasons.
The theoretical phase change latent heat can be calculated by
1132 Y. Qu et al. / Renewable Energy 150 (2020) 1127e1135

Table 2
The measured phase change temperature and latent heat of the composite PCM and paraffin.

TStart (
C) TPeak (
C) TEnd (
C) H1 (J/g) T’Start (
C) T’Peak (
C) T’End (
C) H2 (J/g)

Composite PCM 41.0 43.7 45.9 113.3 41.6 38.7 32.2 112
Paraffin 43.2 46.7 48.5 259 42.8 39.7 38.3 260

MPCM
w% ¼ (3)
Mconcrete þ MPCM þ Mw
Second, uneven mixing during the crushing concrete block
powders can results in the thickener lost its function and intensify
the unevenness.
Fig. 9 shows the image of the concrete samples under the
metallographic microscope. Fig. 9(a) suggests a clear porous
structure under 50 times metallographic microscope. Fig. 9(b)
shows a 100 times image with a reddish-brown color. Both figures
suggest that the composite PCM has been uniformly mixed in the
concrete and maintains a desirable porous microstructure. The light
grey bubbles in the figures are structural holes.
Fig. 10 shows the X-ray diffraction pattern of regular foam
concrete, composite PCM, and phase change foam concrete. The
figure shows a diffraction peak at an incident angle of 15
Ce55
C
and the number of diffraction peaks of the phase change foam
concrete is same as those of the regular foam concrete and the
Fig. 7. Testing samples of the phase change foam concrete.
composite PCM. Therefore, it can be concluded that the composite
PCM was physically compounded without chemical reactions.

Table 3
Density of phase change foam concrete blocks. 3.3. The thermal conductivity of the phase change foam concrete
w% (wt) 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 AVERAGE
Theoretically, as fumed silica is a carrier with low thermal
Density (kg/m3) 545 581 526 568 575 561 565 560 ± 20
conductivity, more fumed silica contents should decrease the
thermal conductivity of the composite PCM. Fig. 11 shows the
heating curve formed by the surface temperature change of the
phase change foam concrete block prepared from the PCM under
the heating of the higher temperature heat source and the lower
temperature heat source, respectively. Among them, Fig. 11 (a) is
the curve generated with higher heating temperature and Fig. 11 (b)
is the curve generated with lower heating temperature. All samples
were placed the testing equipment with exact settings and had the
same initial temperature. The samples were covered by the insu-
lation mould to remove the heat fluctuation caused the environ-
ment temperature. Both figures show that with the content of the
composite PCM decreases, the slope of the heating curve increases
(the temperature rises faster). The temperature of the 0% (wt)
sample rose the fastest while the 30% (wt) sample the slowest.
Fig. 11 (a) shows singularity at t5 ¼ 1900s, t10 ¼ 2050s, t15 ¼ 2450s,
t20 ¼ 3080s, t25 ¼ 3995s and t30 ¼ 5250s for the samples of 0% (wt),
5% (wt), 10% (wt), 15% (wt), 20% (wt), 25% (wt) and 30% (wt),
respectively. After the phase change stage, the interrupted tem-
perature increases will continue.
In order to further verify the change of thermal conductivity of
Fig. 8. DSC curve of phase change foam concrete block. phase change foam concrete blocks, two identical phase change

Table 4
Phase change temperature and latent heat of phase change foam concrete block.

w% (wt) TStart (
C) TPeak (
C) TEnd (
C) H1 (J/g) Hthe (J/g) T’Start (
C) T’Peak (
C) T’End (
C) H2 (J/g) H’the (J/g)

5 28.8 36.7 41.9 1.36 5.67 22.1 27.8 34.4 1.39 5.6
10 28.0 38.1 47.2 6.60 11.33 24.0 28.7 31.7 6.63 11.2
15 35.7 39.2 43.9 8.71 16.99 22.3 29.0 33.6 8.84 16.8
20 38.2 42.1 44.3 13.10 22.66 36.4 32.8 28.7 12.9 22.4
25 36.7 41.2 43.5 16.23 28.32 36.5 32.6 28.3 16.4 28.0
30 37.4 42.0 44.1 21.36 33.99 38.3 34.6 31.8 21.2 33.6
 Y. Qu et al. / Renewable Energy 150 (2020) 1127e1135 1133

Fig. 9. Imaging under the metallographic microscope: (a) Foam concrete  50; (b) Phase change foam concrete  100.

foam concrete blocks were examined with the Hot disk test. Ac-
cording to China’s national standards for foam concrete (JG/T 266-
2011), the dry density grade of foam concrete blocks was A6 and its
thermal conductivity cannot exceed 0.14W/m$k. Table 5 shows the
experimental results of the Hot Disk test. It can be seen from the
table that the highest thermal conductivity of the phase-change
foam concrete block in this experiment is 0.1273W/m$k, which
satisfies the national standard. Therefore, based on the experiment
results, the phase change foam concrete shows lower thermal

Table 5
Thermal conductivity coefficient of phase change foam concrete block.

w% (wt) Thermal conductivity (W/m$k)

0 0.127
5 0.121
10 0.118
15 0.112
20 0.109
25 0.106
Fig. 10. X-ray diffraction patterns of the regular foam concrete, composite PCM, and
30 0.101
phase change foam concrete.
Standard 0.140

Fig. 11. Heating curves of phase change foam concrete blocks with different mass ratios:(a) High heating temperature; (b) Low heating temperature.
1134 Y. Qu et al. / Renewable Energy 150 (2020) 1127e1135
conductivity and present a high heat storage capacity, compared
with ordinary foam concrete (0% PCM content). Thus, it can
conclude that the proposed phase change foam concrete can buffer
the dramatic temperature changes caused by the outdoor envi-
ronment and present ideal properties for "passive" building enve-
lope design. In addition, through proper design, the phase change
temperature can be set to about 35
Ce44
C, which is extremely
suitable to eliminate the outdoor temperature peaks in tropical
climate and summer.
4. Conclusion
“Passive” building design aims to improve the thermal con-
ductivities of the building envelope to reduce the heating and
cooling loads. This study proposed a novel phase change foam
concrete, which is able to mitigate the temperature fluctuation by
storing heat during the daily heat peak. By doing so, the buildings
are able to select renewable energy generating systems with
smaller size and lower capital investment. In order to assess the
thermal properties and optimize the material composition, this
study also conducted a series of experiments.
Compared with other heat-storing materials, paraffin PCM was
selected as the target materials for its low cost, eco-friendly nature,
and stability. Fumed silica was selected as the carrier to encapsulate
the PCMs for its compatibility with construction materials. Foam
concrete was selected as the base since it provides a porous and
light-weighted structure for PCM capsules embedding without
increasing the structural burden for buildings. After a careful
thermal and physical test, the composite PCM with 45% paraffin
content had reported the most stable structure and regarded as the
ideal composite for the foam cement.
The experiment on the phase change foam concrete suggested
that the thermal conductivity and heat absorption capacity was
significantly improved compared with conventional foam concrete.
In addition, with the increase of the content of the composite PCM,
its the thermal conductivity can be future reduced and the heat
storage capacity can be greatly increased. Also, with two phase-
change stages: one solid-solid phase change peak at 44
C and
one solid-liquid phase change peak at 46
C. Both temperatures are
extremely suitable for the application of building environment and
useful in the tropical climate region and typical summer days.
Acknowledgement
This work was supported by Guangzhou Science and Technology
Program (201704030137), the Research Project of Guangdong
Province (2017A050506058), and the Major Research Project of
Guangdong Provincial Department of Education (No.
2016KZDXM035).
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