Thermal performance of hybrid cement mortar-PCMs for warm climates application

In this paper, composites based on a standard mortar and two commercial microencapsulated phase change materials (PCMs) with nominal melting point of 23 degrees C and 26 degrees C in different percentage were produced and characterized. To this aim, an innovative experimental setup, able to contemporarily test two different samples subjected to the same temperature profile was designed and realized. The experimental results were then used to validate a numerical model, implemented in COMSOL Multiphysics. Finally, a parametric analysis was carried out to define optimized melting temperature for the PCM for Mediterranean application, aiming at reducing the overall energy consumption as well as to improve the comfort conditions inside buildings both during winter and summer. The results demonstrated that an optimal melting temperature of 27 degrees C is achieved under Sicilian climatic condition. Furthermore, adding 15 wt% of optimized PCM allows to improve the comfort conditions of about 15% compared to standard solutions based on pure cement mortars.