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Title: Wallboard with latent heat storage for passive solar applications

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:5897408

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:
USDOE; 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