Thermal model of heat transfer in a PCM multilayer construction using Moving Mushy Volume Approach – verification, validation and sensitivity analysis

A new model for predicting the thermal performance of a thin layer of phase change material enclosed in a multilayer structure has been developed, verified, and validated. Numerical verification includes heat transfer and solar radiation processes, while only heat transfer was considered for experimental validation. The model considers thermo-optical properties of the PCM layer using a Moving Mushy Volume Approach. The basic assumption of the proposed approach is to divide the PCM domain into sub-volumes and determine their physical state separately, which allows varying the parameters in time. Each sublayer can be in a solid, liquid, or semi-transient state (mushy) where the level of latent heat and the solid–liquid ratio is determined by a dimensionless temperature-dependent melting function. Hence, it is appropriate for use in whole-building simulation programs, where it can be applied to more precise determination of heat transfer within a transparent PCM structure.