Design of Phase Change Material Wall Based on the Heat Transfer Characteristics in Summer

The thermophysical properties of the wall can greatly affect the thermal performance of the buildings. When design the thermophysical properties, the choice of object function is important. In this paper, two new objective functions (heat insulation factor η1 and heat absorbing factor η2) were proposed to evaluate the thermal performance of the phase change material (PCM) wall. The two objective functions can describe the heat transfer of both the external and inner surface of the PCM wall. The heat transfer of the PCM wall was solved by the thermal-resistance method. The effect of different factors to the objective functions was analyzed. Such as melting temperature, latent heat and the position of the PCM layer in the wall. The model and objective functions are expected to be helpful for the design of PCM wall in active and passive room.