A Validated TRNSYS Model of Thermally Activated Layer With Phase Change Material

Abstract

Simulations of building performance or HVAC systems performance usually cover a time period of several weeks, months or even a year. Therefore, the computational demand of simulation models of buildings or HVAC systems can be quite constraining for their practical application. A substantial simplification of the simulated problem is usually necessary to reduce the computational demand. The paper reports the development of a quasi 1D model of a thermally activated layer with phase change material. The model was developed in MATLAB and subsequently implemented as a TRNSYS type. The model was validated with data obtained from experiments with thermally activated panels. The experimental panels contained a 15 mm thick layer of gypsum plaster comprising 30 wt.% of microencapsulated phase change material. Plastic tubes for liquid heat carrier (water in the presented study) were embedded at the bottom of the plaster layer. Thermal imaging was used to acquire the average surface temperatures of the panels in the experimental investigations. The experimental and numerical results were in a good agreement.