Date of Graduation
5-2016
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Science
Degree Level
Undergraduate
Department
Mechanical Engineering
Advisor/Mentor
Nutter, Darin
Committee Member/Reader
Couvillion, Rick
Committee Member/Second Reader
Roe, Larry
Abstract
This paper presents an overview of phase change materials (PCM) and their properties along with a review of relevant studies conducted in the past several years over phase change materials. An experiment is conducted to examine the differences between external building walls with and without bio-based phase change materials. In addition, the length of time BioPCM requires to completely change phase is examined from the data. Based on the data, the internal wall temperature of a home can be reduced by approximately 2 F. Additionally, a theoretical case study is presented and it is concluded that with the use of phase change materials energy savings of approximately 58% are possible in warm climates under several assumptions about how the PCM handles heat.
Citation
Locetta, R. W. (2016). Review and Experimental Investigation of Phase Change Material Use in Buildings. Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses Retrieved from https://scholarworks.uark.edu/meeguht/59