Thermal Performance of Hollow Acrylic Sheet Integrated with Thermal Energy Storage in Tropical Climate

Abstract

Continuous increment in global energy consumption increases global warming and unwanted climatic changes. Around one-third of global energy is consumed in the building sector, whose major portion is used for space cooling. Thermal energy storage systems with the help of phase change material (PCM) are the most effective technology in the field of development of passive solutions to reduce building space cooling consumption by improving indoor temperature profile of the building. In this study incorporation of thermal energy storage system by shape stabilized PCM in hollow acrylic multiwall polycarbonate sheet with and without fine graphite powder is investigated. A comparative study in comparison with reference hollow acrylic multiwall polycarbonate sheet is prepared for thermal performance investigation in terms of peak temperature reduction, thermal amplitude, time lag, and decrement factor. Sheet which is incorporated with shape stabilized PCM mixed with 5% fine graphite powder shows peak temperature reduction of 10.16 ℃, thermal amplitude reduction of 27.08%, decrement factor of 0.750, and time lag of 110 min in comparison with reference acrylic sheet.