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Integrated Phase Change Material windcatcher system for hybrid cooling and ventilation in tropical building

Resource type
Conference Paper
Authors/contributors
Title
Integrated Phase Change Material windcatcher system for hybrid cooling and ventilation in tropical building
Abstract
This study presents a novel solar fan-assisted multi-directional windcatcher (MDW) with encapsulated phase change material tubes (E-PCMT) for tropical buildings. The ventilation, cooling, and thermal storage performance of the integrated ventilative cooling system is investigated using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Ansys Fluent software under tropical climate conditions. A parametric geometric analysis of three different E-PCMT configurations with melting temperatures at 28oC was conducted to assess the thermal storage performance at different air velocities. The impact of the optimised EPCMT when incorporated inside the air stream of the MDW was further studied. To overcome air flow resistance caused by the obstruction by EPCM-T inside the air streams, the windcatcher airflow is assisted by a wall-mounted axial solar fan that is activated when outdoor air velocity is less than 2m/s. The results based on a typical tropical location showed that the system was able to achieve a consistent and stable air temperature drop of up to 2.64oC over a 4-6-hour. Even at an outdoor air velocity of 1.88m/s, the novel integrated system, in addition to its cooling performance was still able to achieve a supply air velocity rate of 0.16 - 0.57 m/s, meeting the ventilation rates required for indoor comfort.
Date
2022
Conference Name
World Energy Storage Conference
Place
Istanbul, Turkiye
Citation
Eso, O., Darkwa, J., & Calautit, J. (2022). Integrated Phase Change Material windcatcher system for hybrid cooling and ventilation in tropical building. World Energy Storage Conference, Istanbul, Turkiye.