Article
Thermal Performance Measurement Procedure and Its Accuracy
for Shape-Stabilized Phase-Change Material and Microcapsule
Phase-Change Material Combined with Building Materials
Hyun Bae Kim
1
, Masayuki Mae
2
and Youngjin Choi
3,
*
Citation: Kim, H.B.; Mae, M.; Choi, Y.
Thermal Performance Measurement
Procedure and Its Accuracy for
Shape-Stabilized Phase-Change
Material and Microcapsule
Phase-Change Material Combined
with Building Materials. Sustainability
2021, 13, 6671. https://doi.org/
10.3390/su13126671
Academic Editor: Antonio Caggiano
Received: 19 May 2021
Accepted: 10 June 2021
Published: 11 June 2021
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4.0/).
1
Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-8657, Japan;
kim.hyunbae@mail.u-tokyo.ac.jp
2
Department of Architecture, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan; mae@arch1.tu-tokyo.ac.jp
3
Department of Architectural Engineering, Kyonggi University, Suwon 16227, Korea
* Correspondence: yjchoi@kyonggi.ac.kr
Abstract:
The accuracy of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) used in the dynamic method,
which is the method most widely used to measure the thermal performance of existing phase-change
materials (PCMs), is limited when measuring the phase-change range and peak temperature of
PCMs combined with building materials. Therefore, we measured the thermal performance in a
thermochamber; the samples were a sheet of shape-stabilized phase-change material (SSPCM) and a
microencapsulated PCM-impregnated gypsum board fabricated by combining PCM building materi-
als with paraffin. Then, we investigated ways to improve the measurement accuracy. We confirmed
the setting time of the thermochamber temperature change based on the internal temperature of the
PCM and the effect of the PCM capacity on its thermal performance using the dynamic method. The
temperature was increased or decreased in uniform steps at regular time intervals. The error of the
heat absorption and release was less than 2% when a stabilization time of at least 4 h elapsed before
the start of the heating or cooling process. Overall trends in the specific heat and enthalpy, such as
the phase-change section and peak temperature of the PCM, were similar regardless of the setting
time. Thus, it was confirmed that the latent heat performance did not increase proportionally with
the increase in the PCM capacity. The proposed approach can be used to measure the specific heat
and enthalpy of various types of PCMs and building materials.
Keywords:
phase-change material; shape-stabilized PCM; microencapsulated PCM; thermal perfor-
mance; specific heat measurement
Highlights
•
Paraffin-based PCM combined with building materials were measured for thermal
performance in a thermochamber.
•
The samples were a sheet of shape-stabilized phase-change material (SSPCM) and a
microencapsulated PCM-impregnated gypsum board.
•
The effect of thermochamber temperature change and PCM capacity on thermal
performance was confirmed using a dynamic method.
•
The proposed approach can be used to measure the specific heat and enthalpy of
various types of PCMs and building materials.
1. Introduction
The use of thermal energy storage (TES) systems in the building and industrial sectors
has great potential for energy conservation [
1
]. TES systems can reduce the imbalance
between energy demand and supply and reduce costs associated with energy loss [
2
,
3
].
Latent heat storage using a phase-change material (PCM) in a TES system can reduce the
volume and weight since the unit volume has more heat than sensible heat storage [
4
,
5
].
Sustainability 2021, 13, 6671. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13126671 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability
