Wallboard with latent heat storage for passive solar applications

Technical Report · Wed May 01 04:00:00 EDT 1991

OSTI ID:5897408

Kedl, R J

Conventional wallboard impregnated with octadecane paraffin is being developed as a building material with latent heat storage for passive solar and other applications. Impregnation was accomplished simply by soaking the wallboard in molten wax. Concentrations of wax in the combined product as high as 35% by weight can be achieved. Scale-up of the soaking process, from small laboratory samples to full-sized 4- by 8-ft sheets, has been successfully accomplished. The required construction properties of wallboard are maintained after impregnation, that is, it can be painted and spackled. Long-term, high-temperature exposure tests and thermal cycling tests showed no tendency of the paraffin to migrate within the wallboard, and there was no deterioration of thermal energy storage capacity. In support of this concept, a computer model was developed to handle thermal transport and storage by a phase change material (PCM) dispersed in a porous media. The computer model was confirmed by comparison with known analytical solutions and also by comparison with temperatures measured in wallboard during an experimentally generated thermal transient. Agreement between the model and known solution was excellent. Agreement between the model and thermal transient was good, only after the model was modified to allow the PCM to melt over a temperature range, rather than at a specific melting point. When the melting characteristics of the PCM, as determined from a differential scanning calorimeter plot, were used in the model, agreement between the model and transient data was very good. 11 refs., 25 figs., 2 tabs.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (USA)
• Sponsoring Organization: DOE; USDOE, Washington, DC (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-84OR21400
• OSTI ID: 5897408
• Report Number(s): ORNL/TM-11541; ON: DE91012631
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
142000* -- Solar Energy-- Heat Storage-- (1980-)
ALKANES
BUILDING MATERIALS
COMPUTER CODES
ENERGY STORAGE
ENERGY SYSTEMS
EQUIPMENT
HEAT STORAGE
HEATING SYSTEMS
HYDROCARBONS
LATENT HEAT STORAGE
MATERIALS
MELTING POINTS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OTHER ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
PARAFFIN
PASSIVE SOLAR HEATING SYSTEMS
PHASE CHANGE MATERIALS
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
SOLAR EQUIPMENT
SOLAR HEATING SYSTEMS
STORAGE
THERMAL ENERGY STORAGE EQUIPMENT
THERMODYNAMIC PROPERTIES
TRANSITION TEMPERATURE
W CODES
WALLS
WAXES