Research on phase-change material building mass applied in the air-conditioning field

Phase-change material building mass contains phase-change matenals. It can decrease air-conditioning load and indoor temperature fluctuations, and improve comfort degree in summer because of thermal storage property of phase-change material. Thereby, the scale, initial investment and operational cost of air-conditioning system decrease effectively. The indoor surroundings improve. In this paper, suitable phase-change material used in architecture and combination mode between phase change material and architectural material were studied. By considering the properties of materials, such as phase-change temperature, phase-change latent heat, thermal conductivity and expansion coefficient, phase-change materials were selected and evaluated. Combination mode between phase-change material and architectural material were provided. The influence of phase-change material structure on thermal performance in room and energy-saving effect were analyzed and compared with traditional structure without phase-change material. It is proved that phase-change material structure is feasible in the practical engineenng. These provide the basis for developing phase-change material building mass.