Energy & Buildings 276 (2022) 112514

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Energy & Buildings

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Experimental and finite element analysis on the developed

real-time form stable PCM based roof system for thermal
energy storage applications
I. Baskar, M. Chellapandian ⇑
Department of Civil Engineering, Mepco Schlenk Engineering College, Sivakasi, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Due to the raise in global warming and green house effects, the concept of energy efficiency is increas-
Received 2 August 2022 ingly investigated in recent times. Among the different methods of achieving energy efficiency, passive
Revised 8 September 2022 cooling techniques can be suitable option for achieving intensive interior temperature maintenance. In
Accepted 23 September 2022
this work, a novel form stable phase change material (FSPCM) was developed using expanded perlite.
Available online 28 September 2022
The developed FSPCM was implemented for a real time building model to understand the efficiency in
reducing the internal temperature. In total, four scaled building models were developed with different
Keywords:
roof setups such as (i) conventional RC roof installed with clay tiles, (ii) conventional RC roof installed
Passive Cooling System
Phase Change Material
with cool-roof tiles, (iii) Roof installed with macro-encapsulated PCM tile, (iv) roof installed with
Temperature monitoring system FSPCM tile. All the scaled prototypes were installed with temperature sensors for monitoring the reduc-
Form Stable PCM tion in internal temperature and to compare the efficiency of the different models. All the temperature
Finite Element Analysis data measured were recorded using an Arduino based data acquisition (DAQ) system. In addition to
the experimental studies, a detailed 2-D finite element analysis (FEA) was performed using the commer-
cial ANSYS software with the aim of performing a detailed parametric study.
Ó 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction: the use of passive cooling methods could help in mitigating this
problem by eliminating the energy requirement after installation
The trend of urbanisation and rapid development of global cities i.e., low periodic maintenance. The usage of phase change materi-
has led to the heavy increase in the energy demand and utilization. als (PCM) in building energy conservation is increasing due to its
The increase in the energy consumption to compensate the effect effectiveness in regulating the interior temperature in buildings.
of temperature increase could directly influence the rise in effects Rucevskis et al. [3] performed a detailed numerical analysis to
of global warming. One such example which contributes to the rise understand the role of paraffin based PCM on reduction of temper-
in global warming is the effect of Urban Heat Island effect (UHI) [1]. ature in the building roof. They concluded that the developed
To compensate UHI effect, extensive research works have been active PCM system could help in reducing the interior air temper-
performed in the past for reducing global warming through inge- ature by more than 10 °C when compared to the conventional sys-
nious and innovative ways. In previous research work, Delhi NCR, tem. Free cooling is a technology that uses natural ventilation to
which is an Indian city was categorized into local zones based on release the stored energy in PCMs and it has two operational
urban texture. The UHI was greater in zones where the building modes. The first mode is identical to the passive application
density was high [2]. Commercial buildings use heating, ventila- method where the indoor air passes through the PCM storage unit.
tion, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems to maintain the indoor Due to this, the PCM melts by absorbing heat from the air temper-
temperature within the level of human comfort. This process could ature and thereby lowering the room air temperature. In the sec-
significantly contribute in rising the global warming. ond mode, cold ambient air is pumped through the PCM storage
Active cooling methods are energy consuming which require unit throughout the night when the external temperature is lower
constant maintenance and replacement if out-dated. In this regard, than the inside temperature and thereby removing the stored heat
and causing PCM to solidify. In most of the cases, the roof element
is selected for PCM installation since it has the greatest thermal
⇑ Corresponding author.
mass in the structure. Hence, the reduction in heat transfer
E-mail addresses: baskarbose@[Link] (I. Baskar), chellapandian@mep-
[Link] (M. Chellapandian). through the roof will help in significant reduction of the interior

[Link]
0378-7788/Ó 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
I. Baskar and M. Chellapandian Energy & Buildings 276 (2022) 112514

room temperature. Inorganic PCMs have higher performance and ment analysis (FEA) was carried out using ANSYS R21 to validate
durability compared to organic PCMs however they have poor their reliability with the benchmark experimental data. The vali-
compatibility with existing construction materials [4]. dated FE model will be used for performing detailed parametric
Fatty acids offer certain advantages over the conventional latent studies. Finally, a PCM based energy efficient material comparison
energy storage options, such as (a) low sub cooling, (b) reversible was made and total energy savings achieved per year was deter-
melting, and (c) freezing behaviour. In recent years, a fatty acid mined and recommended for further real time implementation in
eutectic combination has gained appeal as a novel means of devel- mega projects.
oping phase change materials [5–7]. However the selection of
exact composition and type of fatty acid for different applications
has been extensively studied and a equation has been proposed
2. Materials used
[8]. To enhance the performance of organic PCMs on par with the
level of inorganic PCMs, various methodologies were adopted. In
The main components of the organic fatty acid used for the syn-
specific, the performance of a PCM relies heavily on its thermal
thesis of the novel PCM include lauric acid (C12H24O2) and palmitic
conductivity. Methods to enhance the thermal conductivity of
acid (C16H32O2). Both the chemicals are procured from Infinator Pvt
PCMs have been well established in previous studies [9–11]. Use
Ltd, India. The nano-silica and expanded perlite used in this work
of thermal conductivity enhancers such as nano silica and was procured from Astrra Chemicals, India. All the components
expanded graphite shows promising results in increasing the per-
were prepared to laboratory standards and their physical proper-
formance of organic fatty acid based PCMs. In this regard, PCMs ties such as melting point, latent heat and molecular formula are
are transformed into a Form-Stable PCMs (FSPCM) before installing
presented in Table 1.
on the structural elements to avoid any possibilities of leakage and
to reduce the effect of PCM interacting with the environment.
FSPCM synthesised by using materials such as expanded perlite,
2.1. Synthesis of PCM
nano silica composite and carbon nano tubes have been identified
as optimal methods of synthesis [12–14].
LA:PA ratio of 73.4:26.6 was selected to achieve a melting point
The performance of PCM heavily relies on the thickness of the
of PCM as 37.5 °C [8] as shown in Fig. 1. LA/PA PCM was synthe-
layer provided [15]. However, increasing the thickness of the
sized using melt fusion method. Such a high melting temperature
PCM to a large extent could hurt economically and only provide
of 37.5 °C was selected to account for the tropical climatic condi-
diminishing returns. Hence, it is vital to find the optimal thickness
tion in India. For the manufacturing of PCM, lauric acid and palmi-
of PCM layer for the specific applications and output before incor-
tic acid were taken in a beaker in the above mentioned weight
porating it into the structure. Adaptation of PCM in building envel-
proportion and allowed to melt in a hot plate with magnetic stirrer.
ope can be accelerated by developing ways to incorporate it with
The eutectic mixture was stirred at a constant speed of 400 rpm till
existing building materials. Investigation in this area shows that
the components were completely melted to form a clear liquid.
incorporating PCMs in building aggregates resulted in reduced per-
Ultra sonicator was used to sonicate the eutectic mixture to evenly
formance of aggregate dopped with PCMs was similar to that of
disperse the 1 % nano-silica which is added to enhance the thermal
raw PCMs [16]. Various other methods of incorporating PCMs in
conductivity of the novel PCM. Various criteria such as even distri-
the envelope of structures such as in wall panels, mortar etc have
bution, negligible chemical interactions and minimal agglomera-
been studied extensively [17–21]. Many studies show that the
tion among the nano-silica and eutectic mixture of LA-PA were
usage of PCMs in roof is providing promising outcomes. However,
assured and the same was validated using IR spectroscopy during
it heavily depends on the method used for applying the PCM in
the production of the composite PCM mixture.
roof. In the experimental study of utilizing a combination of PCMs
and thermo-chromatic paints resulted in energy savings in the
range of 7 % to 16 % when compared to the standard reference
[22]. Another study demonstrated the use of FSPCM by integrating 2.2. Preparation of PCM and FSPCM tiles
it in the ventilated roof. Results revealed that the performance of
combined PCM and the ventilation shows that the average inner For the application of macro-encapsulated and form stable PCM
surface temperature reduction of more than 4 % when compared on building roof, hollow clay tiles were used as shown in Fig. 2. The
to the standard roof without PCM [23]. PCM can also be incorpo- prepared eutectic PCM was melted to a flowable consistency and
rated by combining with the reflective coating paint. The efficiency was poured into the hollow clay tiles. The open ends of the hollow
of the modified FSPCM paint was analysed in a previous study clay tiles were closed using cement mortar to avoid any leakage
which showed a reduction in the inner surface temperature by issues. In the case of form stable PCM, the eutectic mixture was
2.2 °C [24]. Studies on the numerical modelling of PCM based roof melted at a higher temperature than its melting point to achieve
shows that the overall behaviour of integrating PCM in roofs can be lower viscosity and higher flowability. This is essential to ensure
captured even without experimental investigation [25–28]. that the expanded perlite material used in the mix will absorb
A careful review of the previous studies shows that no real time the maximum quantity of PCM. The PCM was slowly allowed to
models were evaluated with LA-PA based materials [29–33]. In impregnate perlite so that it possesses sufficient time to absorb
specific, the efficiency of nano-silica and expanded perlite based the PCM. Once the PCM is mixed with perlite, the mixture is then
FSPCM for reducing the indoor surface temperature is yet to be filled into the hollow clay tiles and the ends are sealed with cement
explored. In this paper, a novel PCM was developed using the mortar to avoid any leakage.
eutectic mixture of Lauric acid (LA), Palmitic acid (PA). Two types
of PCM with & without form-stabilization were developed. In total,
Table 1
four prototypes of size 1.2 m  1.2 m  1.2 m and an RC roof slab Characteristics of Fatty Acids in Synthesis of PCM.
100 mm thickness was constructed to compare the performance of
Fatty Acid Type Latent Heat (J/g) Chemical Melting Range (0C)
various roof combination as specified. Arduino based temperature
Notation
monitoring system was developed to monitor the top and bottom
Palmitic acid 211 C16H32O2 60–62 °C
surface temperature of the roof as well as the indoor room temper-
Lauric acid 184 C12H24O2 43–45 °C
ature. In addition to the real time monitoring system, finite ele-
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I. Baskar and M. Chellapandian Energy & Buildings 276 (2022) 112514

Fig. 1. Schematic representation of eutectic point for the developed LA-PA mix.

From the SEM analysis of EP, it can be witnessed that they con-
tain a number of pores of large volumes. These pores can be uti-
lised for the absorption of PCM & thereby arresting the leakage
issues in them. Fig. 3 (a) shows the SEM image of developed LA-
PA eutectic PCM. From the FESEM images, it can be concluded that
the PCM mix contains fused platelets of LA-PA eutectic. Fig. 3c & 3d
shows the FESEM images of FSPCM taken at different magnifica-
tions. The development of FSPCM showed advantage by revealing
the porous nature of EP as most of the PCM are absorbed within
them. Hence, only minimal voids/pores can be witnessed even at
close resolutions.
FTIR spectra benefits in a comprehensive chemical analysis of
the generated PCM. From the FTIR results shown in Fig. 4, it can
be witnessed that the composition of the base component of the
eutectic has not undergone any significant changes in terms of
chemical characteristics. Moreover, it can be confirmed that the
wave number peaks observed for the individual fatty acids (lauric
acid and palmitic acid) are mostly similar to that of the developed
nano-silica based composite PCM mixture. It is worth mentioning
that the peak observed at 2310 cm 1 for both lauric and palmitic
acid was missing when used as a eutectic or composite PCM. This
observation confirms the presence of a weak peak in the individual
fatty acids and gets masked up when they are used as a eutectic or
Fig. 2. Hollow clay tiles used for PCM installation. a composite.
The impact of nano – SiO2 addition on the melting temperature
and latent heat capacity of LA-PA eutectic PCM is better under-
stood using DSC analysis. In this study, DSC analysis for both eutec-
2.3. Characterization methods tic fatty acid mixture and the nano-silica based composite PCM
was carried out utilising a DSC 131 EVO-Setaram equipment from
The morphological characteristics of the developed LA-PA France. The value of phase change enthalpy or latent heat was
eutectic and their composite form stable PCM was investigated measured from the area under the DSC plots during phase transi-
using a scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysis along with tion (i.e., under exothermic and endothermic event). Fig. 5 shows
the energy dispersive spectrum (EDS) analysis for determining the comparison of DSC analysis obtained for eutectic LA-PA and
the elemental composition. The SEM samples were coated with a FSPCM mix. In the case of LA-PA based PCM, the latent heat was
thin layer of gold (Au) coating produced using gold sputtering. found to be 187.0 J/g and 165.8 J/g under the endothermic event
The resulting microstructure characterisation of the PCM assists (36.2 °C) and exothermic event (32.9 °C) respectively. It is worth
in the evaluation of vibrational behaviour and morphological mentioning that the the latent heat capacity was significantly
properties. improved with the use of composite PCM (i.e., addition of nano

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I. Baskar and M. Chellapandian Energy & Buildings 276 (2022) 112514

Fig. 3. Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope of LA/PA PCM.

SiO2) when compared to the eutectic LA-PA mix. Table 2 compares 3.1. Details of developed prototypes
the thermal properties of the novel PCM developed in this study
along with PCMs proposed in other studies. From the comparison, In order to showcase the practical feasibility of developed
it can be witnessed that the melting and solidification ranges are FSPCM, four test huts of dimension 1.2 m  1.2 m  1.2 m were
significantly different for different PCM types and are selected constructed with the RC roof slab of thickness 100 mm. The huts
based on the particular locality where it requires real-time imple- were closed to maintain low air circulation with the aim of study-
mentation (i.e., tropical region or cold-weather). ing the performance of the roof system under extreme /poor ven-
Thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA) of the composite PCM was tilation. Fig. 8 depicts the different type of roofing system used in
performed to determine its thermal stability. Fig. 6 shows the this work which includes i) bare RC roof with clay tiles, ii) RC roof
results of the thermo-gravimetric analysis for the developed with commercial thermal insulation tiles (cool roof tiles), iii) RC
FSPCM mix. From the TGA graph, it can be observed that the melt- roof with macro-encapsulated PCM and iv) RC roof with form
ing onset of the LA-PA eutectic is at 38.5 °C and has no deviation stable PCM. The rationale behind the selection of different roofing
with that of the FSPCM mix. system was to compare the performance of developed FSPCM on
par with conventional system. In specific, the roof element of the
building was selected for installing PCM because the majority of
the thermal load to the structure is transferred from the roof and
3. Experimental program has the most impact to the indoor temperature. So, the current
study aims to control the internal room temperature fluctuations
Fig. 7 depicts the overall work methodology deployed in this through the reduction in amount of heat transferred through the
work. The overall progress of the work is divided into three phases roof.
which includes (a) characterisation of developed PCM and FSPCM,
(b) development of a temperature monitoring system with differ-
ent test hut systems and (c) Use of commercial finite element tool 3.1.1. RCC roof with clay tiles and cool roof tiles:
to develop a reliable model for investigating wide range of param- RCC roof with clay tiles is considered to be the benchmark for
eters beyond the scope of the experimental program. The elaborate comparison with other test huts due to their widespread use in
details regarding the three different phases of the proposed wok developing countries like India. They are inexpensive, easy to
will be explained in the following sections. install and provide a basic level of waterproofing for the RC ele-
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I. Baskar and M. Chellapandian Energy & Buildings 276 (2022) 112514

Fig. 4. FITR spectra of the components in the novel PCM.

ment present beneath them. However, this type of roofing system mer cement mortar. It is worth mentioning that the selection of the
exhibits similar thermal performance when compared to the bare PCM quantity is based on the dimensions of the commercial tile
RC roofs because of their minimal thickness used. By choosing this available in the market. However, the use of PCM can be optimised
type of roofing system as conventional one, the performance of the based on the requirement of energy efficiency i.e., reduction in
novel FSPCM based roofing system developed in this study can be temperature required at the interior of the building.
evaluated for wide variety of applications in tropical countries. In
the second model, commercially available cool roof tiles are used. 3.1.3. RCC roof with form stable PCM
These tiles possess a glazed coating with chemical such as zirco- A PCM can be converted to a form Stable PCM for preventing the
nium oxide, alumina silicate or zirconium silicate for reducing form conversion during the phase transition. In this study,
the amount of heat transferred into the building. Moreover, they expanded perlite is used as a material for form stabilization of
possess a high solar reflective index (SRI) value of 90 due to the PCM. Expanded perlite is selected due to its excellent absorption
white colour which helps in reflecting most of the incoming radia- capacity through pores i.e., 50 % of PCM can be absorbed to its vol-
tion. As an alternative to the tropical clay tile used in traditional ume. Moreover, the thermal mass of expanded perlite is signifi-
building, white cool roof tiles are gaining popularity in recent cantly low when compared to other materials. In addition, the
times. Hence, a direct comparison can be made between the effi- self-weight of expanded perlite is low as a result of which there
ciency of commercially available cool roof tiles and the FSPCM will not be any increase in the gravity load of the roof element
based roof material developed as a part of this work. when the composite PCM based system is installed. FSPCM is eco-
nomical as well because the total quantity of PCM required is sig-
3.1.2. RCC roof with macro encapsulated PCM nificantly low when compared to macro encapsulated PCM. The
The main drawback of using PCM in building application is the developed FSPCM is packed into the same hollow clay tiles as
possibility of leakage due to the phase change from solid to liquid shown in Fig. 9 as macro encapsulated PCM and installed to the
form. Hence, the concept of macro-encapsulation of developed RCC roof.
PCM is important so that the effect of melting and solidification
process becomes negligible. Macro encapsulation refers to the 3.2. Installation of temperature monitoring system
use of PCM as a filler material in an enclosure of large volume so
that the volumetric expansion, change in density and viscosity In order to record and monitor the real time temperature of
occurring during the phase transition can be contained inside the each prototype, an arduino based temperature monitoring system
encapsulation and does not affect the building element. Packing was developed. Arduino based monitoring system is preferred over
plays a vital role in preventing the leakage of PCM, when it changes many conventional strain measurement systems due to the high
from solid to liquid state during a phase transition. In the applica- efficiency, ease in availability, cost effectiveness and user-friendly
tion perspective, the roof material to be used must have sufficient nature. The Arduino Uno R3 development board is used as the main
strength, durability and thermal conductivity to convey heat to the board. LM 35 temperature sensor is used to measure the tempera-
PCM. The PCM roof system requires a cavity space into which PCM ture of the prototypes with accuracy non-linearity only ±¼°C typ-
packing can be inserted and thereby allowing it to be readily ical and low self-heating of 0.08 °C in still air. The LM35 has a
installed on an existing structure. In this study, the performance sensitivity of 10 mV/°C. The output voltage increases with the
of macro-encapsulated PCM is evaluated by packing the PCM into increase in temperature. It is a three-terminal sensor that monitors
hollow clay tiles as shown in Fig. 9 and sealing the ends with poly- temperatures ranging from 55 to 150 °C. Fig. 10 shows the pin
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would enable us to analyse the comfort level of each roof system.

20 Area=-11.58617
A schematic representation of the installation of sensors is given
FWHM =2.14704

Area=11.06712
FWHM =0.46027

in Fig. 10.
15 31.37
LA-PA The data from the sensors needs to be stored in a reliable data
acquisition system (DAQ) for further analysis. For this purpose, a
10 SD card module was installed to the Arduino board used as the
Latent Heat = 165.8 J/g
Heat (mW)

5 storage medium. Data was set to record continuously for every

29.16 32.9
5 min and the recorded data was collected weekly for understand-
0 ing the effectiveness of different systems used. It is worth noting
36.2 40.8 that the recorded data contain some noise readings, which is
-5 caused due to electromagnetic interference in the circuit. This
38.7 noise needs to be removed from the data pool before analysing.
-10
Latent Heat = 187 J/g
-15 4. Results and discussion
-20
20 30 40 50 60 70 4.1. Analysis of top surface temperature
Temperature °C
The top surface temperature was measured to determine the
(a) Eutectic LA-PA intensity of solar radiation absorbed by the respective roof sys-
Area=-14.78756
FWHM =3.03505
tems. Fig. 11 depicts the comparison of the maximum top surface
20 temperature recorded for different roof systems from 28 to 02-
Area=14.66552
FWHM =1.2692
2022 to 16–05-2022 (i.e., 3 months approximately). From the
LA-PA/NS
15 graph, it can be observed that the performance of the conventional
30.4 system and the PCM based prototype are similar to each other.
10 Latent Heat = 216.4 J/g Comparing the three-month data of top surface temperature, con-
ventional system showed a maximum value of 70.3 °C. In the case
5
Heat (mW)

of PCM & FSPCM, a reduction of 2.3 % and 0.84 % respectively can be

28.2 32.8
0 observed which can be attributed to the composition of clay pre-
36.2 42.7 sent as parent material in both the prototypes which have similar
-5 thermal properties.
39.7 In contrast, the cool roof tile prototype exhibited excellent per-
-10 formance to reduce the top surface temperature due to their SRI
Latent Heat = 231.4 J/g
value and reflecting capability. This reduction in top surface tem-
-15
perature could also be attributed to its white colour. For cool roof
-20 tiles, a maximum exterior surface temperature reduction of 5.7 %
20 30 40 50 60 70 was achieved. However, the performance of the cool roof tile based
Temperature °C system reduces drastically with the increase in time period. Due to
the action of extreme environmental conditions, a significant dis-
(b) FSPCM Mix coloration of cool roof tiles can be witnessed. Also, the tiles were
found to be accumulated with the dust. Hence, the temperature
Fig. 5. DSC of the Novel PCM with and without Nano Silica.
reduction was not apparent with the increase in installation time.
Though the cool roof tiles installed over the roof can be periodically
out diagram of the LM35 sensor. Before the initiation of installation maintained, the access to the commercial/industrial building roofs
procedure, all the temperature sensors were calibrated and are uncommon. In addition, the efficiency of cool roof tiles will also
checked for accuracy. Three sensors were installed on each proto- reduce due to the discoloration happening over the period of time.
type to measure the temperatures at exterior & interior surface. A Therefore, periodic maintenance to improve the efficacy of the roof
sensor was installed on the outer surface of the prototype to mea- system may be tedious and cost-intensive. In this point of view, the
sure the exterior temperature recorded on roof surface. This data actual phenomenon of cool roof tiles is studied and documented in
could help in understanding the amount of heat on the surface of this work.
the roof systems. A second sensor was installed on the bottom sur-
face of the RC slab to measure the internal surface temperature of 4.2. Analysis of bottom surface temperature
the roof. This measurement provides us with the information of the
amount of heat transferred by the roof systems from the exterior to The bottom surface temperature was analysed to evaluate the
the indoor surface. The third sensor was positioned at the centre of amount of heat transferred from the top of the roof system to
the room to measure the indoor temperature of the room which the bottom. Fig. 12 illustrates the comparison of bottom surface

Table 2
Comparison of the Novel PCM developed in this study with existing studies.

[Link] Description Present study Liu et al. [34] Zhu et al. [35] Zhang et al. [36] Jebasingh et al. [37]
Type of Fatty acid LA-PA\NS LA-MA-SA LA-SA CA-PA-SA\ EG CA-MA
Ratio 73.4: 26.6 58.8:32.8:11.4 78.3:27.7 79.3:14.7:6 85:15
Melting point (°C) 39.7 29.3 39.0 21.3 20.9
Solidification point (°C) 30.4 28.4 31.7 19.0 17.0
Thermal Conductivity (W/mK) 0.268 0.260 0.373 0.347 0.156

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Fig. 6. TGA curve of the novel PCM.

Fig. 7. Graphical representation of the proposed work methodology.

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I. Baskar and M. Chellapandian Energy & Buildings 276 (2022) 112514

Fig. 8. Representation of Prototypes used.

Fig. 9. Packing of PCM in hollow clay tiles for installation on roof system.

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I. Baskar and M. Chellapandian Energy & Buildings 276 (2022) 112514

Fig. 10. Installation of sensors and DAQ system for real time monitoring.

temperature for three months to understand the performance of solid to liquid. Considering the hottest period which was observed
different prototypes used in this work. From the graph, it can be to be the first week of April, there was a temperature reduction of
observed that the maximum bottom surface temperature of the 10 °C for PCM based prototype. It is worth noting that the perfor-
conventional model was found to be 45.9 °C. Similarly, the maxi- mance of macro-encapsulated PCM roof and form stable PCM roof
mum bottom surface temperature in the cool roof tile system system was found similar due to the fact that FSPCM based roof
was found to be similar to the conventional terracotta-based pro- requires only less quantity of PCM due to the presence of expanded
totype i.e., the indoor surface temperature of cool roof tile based perlite. Hence, the similar performance can be achieved for FSPCM
prototype was 45.85 °C. There is no difference between the con- at a much less cost needed for PCM when compared to macro-
ventional system and cool roof tile system in terms of indoor sur- encapsulated technique.
face temperature. Another interesting observation from the study
is that the commercially available cool roof tiles are beneficial only 4.3. Detailed analysis of the roof systems
in reducing the external surface temperature. However, their per-
formance to reduce the interior room temperature is not In order to perform a detailed analysis, a weekly data of temper-
appreciable. ature recorded was used for comparison. This detailed analysis is
For the roof system installed with macro-encapsulated PCM, a essential so that the optimal performance of the roof systems can
considerable reduction in temperature up to 8 °C 10 °C was be studied and compared. The temperature data of top and bottom
observed. The reduction in the indoor temperature of the PCM roof surface of the roof systems are represented in Fig. 13. During night
systems can be attributed to the latent heat property of the PCM, time, the top surface temperature is much lower the bottom sur-
which reduces the amount of heat transferred to the RCC by face temperature due to the lack of ventilation provided in the pro-
absorbing the heat during the phase transition of the PCM from totypes. The temperature inside the test hut did not have any
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Fig. 11. Comparison of top surface temperature for different RC roof system.

Fig. 12. Comparison of bottom surface temperature for different RC roof system.

fluctuation and the natural convection takes place slowly due to lower with an average reduction in temperature of 9.53 % in terms
less movement of air inside. Comparing the bottom temperature of heat transferred to the bottom roof when compared with the
of is a major concern of the study since the indoor temperature conventional model. The time taken for the heat to propagate
is heavily influenced by the bottom temperature of the RC. through the PCM systems is also longer when compared to the con-
Fig. 14 shows the comparison of the bottom surface temperature ventional model. In average, the PCM roof prototype took addi-
of all the roof systems during the detailed study taken for one- tional 60 min to reach the maximum temperature in contrast to
week time interval. From the graph, it can be observed that the the conventional system.
temperature of the conventional model is high when compared
to the other [Link] temperature of the cool roof tiles is com- 5. Numerical investigations
paratively better than the conventional system during the initial
stages of the study due to negligible effect of discoloration. The From the experimental results, it can be noted that both the
performances of both the PCM roof systems were consistently PCM systems performed better than the conventional roof and cool
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Fig. 13. Comparison of weekly temperature variation in different roof system.

Fig. 14. Comparison of the bottom surface temperature for weekly data.

roof tiles system. The performance of the macro encapsulated PCM the finite element analysis. For the conventional roof system and
and form stable PCM prototype was found similar. In reality, the form stable PCM, two dimensional FE analysis was performed
use of FSPCM is feasible due to the reduced leakage during the using the commercial software ANSYS FE model was performed
melting process. Hence, the FSPCM model is only considered for using transient thermal analysis. The validated finite element

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model can be used for performing an extensive parametric analysis sis, an optimum mesh size of 10 mm is adopted for both conven-
aiming to propose design recommendations for energy storage in tional and FSPCM based model. Moreover, the temperature
buildings. gradient of the model was analysed to determine the variation in
temperature between the external top surface of the roof and the
internal bottom surface room temperature. This data is essential
5.1. Modeling Procedure: to compare the effectiveness of the developed form stable PCM
based roof system in reducing the total internal surface tempera-
For the experimental validation, the data recorded on 02-04- ture as well the room temperature which in turn could aid in
2022 was used, due to the presence of clear sky and minimal cloud enhancing the energy savings in buildings.
interference in readings. The temperature was initiated at the same From Fig. 16, it is clear that both the numerical and experimen-
temperature obtained from the experimental analysis as on the tal results follow a similar trend. TOP(A) and BOT(A) represent the
aforementioned date which was 34 °C for the conventional model numerical results obtained from top and bottom temperature sen-
and 27 °C for the PCM model. The analysis was run for a total dura- sors while TOP(E) and BOT(E) represents the experimental data
tion of 12 h from 6 AM to 6 PM. The solar load was assumed to be obtained from top and bottom surface sensors. The maximum tem-
1000 W/m2 at the sea level. The thermal properties such as thermal perature observed on the top surface of the conventional roof
conductivity, melting point, specific heat capacity and latent heat model in the numerical analysis was observed to be 64.3 °C and
were considered from the material characterization of PCM. The the top surface temperature of the conventional roof model in
following assumptions are involved in the mathematical formula- the experimental investigation was observed to be 65.2 °C. There-
tion of the transient thermal problem, fore, it is clear that the error percent was in the range of 1.4 %. Sim-
ilarly, the bottom surface temperature of the conventional roof
 Heat conduction is two-dimensional and transient in the com- system obtained from numerical analysis was at 45.5 °C and from
posite wall. the experimental investigation, it was at 44 °C. Here the error per-
 Thermal characteristics (thermal conductivity, specific heat, centage was in the range of 3.4 %. In both the cases, the error per-
density, and latent heat values) remain constant and unaffected cent is below 5 % which shows the capability of the developed FE
by temperature. model to capture the experimental measurements in accurate
 The PCM is isotropic and homogenous. Convection effects are genre.
insignificant in molten PCM. From the comparison shown in Fig. 16(b), it is evident that both
 Internal contact resistances are insignificant. experimental and numerical values follow similar trend without
 For modelling purposes, melting or solidification is considered much deviation. The maximum temperature observed on the top
to occur over a narrow temperature range. surface of the numerical model was 67 °C and the maximum top
Fig. 15 shows the meshing procedure of conventional roof surface temperature of the experimental results was observed to
model in 2-D finite element analyses. Mesh sensitivity analysis be 65.4 °C. The difference in predictions was found to be 3.1 %. Sim-
was performed to understand the effect of optimum mesh size ilarly, the maximum bottom temperature from the numerical anal-
on the temperature predictions. From the mesh sensitivity analy- ysis was 40.9 °C whereas the experimental result was 41 °C. The

Fig. 15. Meshing and initial temperature measurement in developed 2-D FE model.

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I. Baskar and M. Chellapandian Energy & Buildings 276 (2022) 112514

Fig. 16. Comparison of experimental and FE analysis of roof models.

error percentage was found to be 0.3 %. Both the results are pre- posed FSPCM system when compared to the conventional roof
dicted within the allowable range of error. system.
The temperature gradient of the PCM roof model during various
time of the day is given in Figs. 17 and 18. It can be observed that 5.2. Parametric studies on FSPCM roof systems
the temperature gradient of the conventional model at 12 PM was
63.5 °C and 40.3 °C at top surface and indoor bottom surface, The purpose of developing the finite element model of form
respectively. The use of FSPCM based roof system helped in reduc- stable PCM is to explore the detailed understanding of parameters
ing the indoor surface temperature to 35.1 °C. In terms of percent- and practical applications which are outside the scope of experi-
age, a reduction in interior surface temperature of 14.8 % was mental work. The FE model validated with the performance of
observed when compared to the conventional system. Comparing benchmark prototypes was found to yield result of high accuracy.
the variation of exterior and interior surface temperature, a signif- Hence, they are used to understand the effect of two important
icant reduction can be witnessed showing the efficiency of pro- parameters namely i) thickness of FSPCM used and ii) size of room
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I. Baskar and M. Chellapandian Energy & Buildings 276 (2022) 112514

Fig. 17. Temperature gradient of conventional model from FE analysis.

where PCM is installed. The first parametric study was designed in 5.2.2. Practical feasibility of proposed prototype
view to understand the improvement achieved in terms of temper- Since roof elements designed as a part of this experimental
ature reduction, when the thickness of PCM increases. The second work are of smaller dimensions, it is essential to understand the
parametric study was aimed to understand the effect of PCM in size effect on the performance of PCM. Hence, a detailed numerical
reducing the internal surface temperature for rooms of larger size analysis is performed for a commercial unit of size 10 feet  10
(i.e., practical dimensions). feet. with a 100 mm thick RC slab for installing the PCM. Two mod-
els were developed to compare the performance of PCM based
model with a conventional one of the same dimensions. The same
5.2.1. Effect of FSPCM thickness: initial conditions employed for the original models were used as
In the first parametric study-five different thickness of PCM lay- the parametric study. This comparison allows us to study the per-
ers such as 10 mm, 20 mm, 30 mm, 40 mm and 50 mm was formance of the PCM roof system in a real-world condition. Fig. 20
selected. Also, a decreasing trend was observed in the temperature shows the comparison of bottom temperature of the RC slabs
with the increase in the thickness of PCM layer (Fig. 19). For 10 mm installed with/without PCM. From the graph, the excellent perfor-
thick PCM roof, the temperature observed was 40.9 °C. Similarly, mance of PCM based roof system in reducing the temperature is
the temperature for the 20, 30, 40 and 50 mm thickness PCM roof evident. The RC roof reached a maximum temperature of 49.9 °C
were observed to be 39.2 °C, 38.0 °C, 36.9 °C, and 36.1 °C respec- while the PCM roof only reached to a temperature of 43.4 °C for
tively. The optimum thickness of the PCM to be deployed in the the same conditions.
buildings depends heavily on their environmental conditions. With Fig. 21 shows the temperature gradient of both the roofs at 12
the provision of 10 mm thick FSPCM, an average reduction in inte- PM (maximum temperature). Both the conventional and FSPCM
rior temperature of 7.3 % was observed. This comparison was made based roof models were initialized at the same temperature and
with respect with the interior surface temperature for conven- start at the same time limit during initiation. However, the conver-
tional specimen no PCM layer. Similarly, for the provision of gence at the same point was not observed after 24 h since the ther-
20 mm thick FSPCM layer, an average reduction in interior temper- mal storage property of the building materials were able to hold on
ature of 12.8 % was observed. With the increase in FSPCM thickness to some of the available heat from the simulated load. Therefore,
to 30 mm, 40 mm and 50 mm, the average reduction in interior after a time period of 24 h, some residual temperature increase
surface temperature were found to be 15.8 %, 19.8 % and 22.2 % can be witnessed when compared to the original start temperature.
respectively when compared to the conventional model. From
the results of above parametric study, two important observations
can be made. First, the increase in thickness of FSPCM more than 6. Summary and conclusions
20 mm will not provide a considerable reduction in inner surface
temperature. Secondly, the increase in thickness of PCM more than A novel Form Stable PCM based roof system prepared from a
the desired level could considerably increase the overall cost of the eutectic mixture of lauric acid, palmitic acid and nano-silica as a
project. Hence, an optimum thickness of 20 mm thick FSPCM could thermal conductivity enhancer. In the proposed FSPCM model,
be used in the building envelopes to achieve a considerable savings expanded perlite was used as the matrix for form stabilization.
in energy. The developed PCM and FSPPCM were filled in the hollow clay tiles
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I. Baskar and M. Chellapandian Energy & Buildings 276 (2022) 112514

Fig. 18. Temperature gradient of PCM model during various time of the day.

as a medium to contain the melting and solidification process dur-  Similar to the FSCM roof system, the macro encapsulated PCM
ing phase change and the ends are sealed with polymer cement model was highly effective in reducing the indoor temperature.
mortar. The indoor temperature of different roof systems was stud- However, with the increase in time, the macro encapsulated
ied by constructing four test hut prototypes of size 1.2 m  1.2 m PCM model suffered leakage issues where the polymer cement
 1.2 m and a detailed comparison between the different roof sys- mortar seal used in the end was not able to withstand the vol-
tems for achieving energy efficiency in buildings was explored. umetric expansion of the PCM during phase transition. In this
Furthermore, the obtained experimental results were validated regard, the FSPCM model didn’t exhibit any leakage issues since
through a 2D finite element analysis using ANSYS software for fur- the perlite was able to contain the PCM in its pores and main-
ther parametric studies. The following major conclusions can be tain its form during the phase change.
drawn from the results presented.  Comparing the novel FSPCM with the commercial cool roof tile
model, the performance in reducing the top surface tempera-
 The performance of developed form stable PCM roof system was ture was superior when compared to the other models. How-
effective in reducing the indoor temperatures when compared ever, performance decreased significantly with the increase in
to the conventional model. It is worth mentioning that the time due to various causes such as dust accumulation on the
reduction in indoor temperatures up to 8 °C 10 °C was surface and discoloration of the white colour tile, etc.
observed when compared to the conventional model. Moreover,  The developed 2-D finite element model was able to accurately
the time consumed for the transfer of heat from the top surface predict the exterior and interior surface temperatures of both
of RC slab to the indoor bottom surface was increased about conventional as well as FSPCM models. From the results of para-
60 min compared to the conventional roof system. metric analysis conducted, there was a direct correlation

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Fig. 19. Comparison of bottom surface temperature of the PCM roof systems with various thickness of PCM layer.

Fig. 20. Comparison of the bottom surface temperature of conventional and PCM system for 10ft  10ft room.

observed between the thickness of PCM layer and the tempera-  The results obtained from the proposed study could help in pro-
ture reduction in the model. An average reduction of 1 °C per viding a detailed understanding on the usage of PCM based roof
10 mm thickness increase was observed. system as a passive cooling solution in structures located in

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I. Baskar and M. Chellapandian Energy & Buildings 276 (2022) 112514

 Though the scope of the present investigation is limited to

understand the effectiveness of developed FSPCM on the overall
thermal comfort under extreme exposure conditions, it is essen-
tial to understand the performance of different roof systems
deployed under different climatic and exposure conditions.
These conditions could really help in understanding the degra-
dation or resistance of the materials and correlate the same
with their overall performance. As a scope for further works,
the efficiency of different cool roof tiles which are commercially
available and FSPCM will be investigated under the effect of
external climatic conditions with a minimum data period of
three years.

Data availability

Data will be made available on request.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-

cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared
to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to acknowledge the support of Mepco

Schlenk Engineering College, Sivakasi for carrying out the research
work through the ‘‘MEPCO SEED MONEY GRANT (SM-002)”. The
authors would also like to acknowledge the support of [Link]
Harikara Jaswanth in completing the experimental program.

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