TY: THES T1 - Nanotechnology applied to construction: experimental and numerical study of building solutions with phase change materials A1 - Amaral, Claudia Patricia Candido do N2 - Thermal Energy Storage systems (TES), using phase change materials (PCM) in building sector, are widely investigated technologies and a fast developing research area. The use of PCM in building solutions and components appear as a potential solution to increase the thermal efficiency in buildings, either new or refurbished, since they can storage more energy, in latent form, than the typical sensible energy stored by common construction materials. However, the low thermal conductivity of PCM limits their full potential use because it slows down the heat transfer response associated to the charging and discharging processes. The present work approaches this frailty exploring the development of building solutions which incorporate synthetized PCM based on nanofillers and other additives to enhance the thermal conductivity. The evaluation in terms of thermal performance of different polyurethane foams (PUFs) formulations incorporating first, commercial microencapsulated PCM and a second, synthetized PCM based on paraffin and calcium carbonate. For comparison comparative analysis of three thermal conductivity testing procedures to characterize and determine the thermal conductivity. Next, a numerical model was developed to be calibrated resourcing to experimental data to then carry out a parametric study to assess the thermal performance of rigid PUFs panels incorporating PCM. Finally, the thermal performance of an alternative to rigid PUFs, specifically that of a poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) structural layer incorporating commercial microencapsulated PCM and the two synthetized PCM was evaluated. This work presents promising results of the synthesized PCM in comparison to the commercial PCM and their incorporation into the different polymeric matrices (PUFs and PVC) revealing potential in LHTES applications. In addition, according the used acceptance criteria, the results of the numerical model presented a good agreement and reliability and were considered calibrated with well prediction data. The results reveal the PCM potential for the thermal regulation of indoor spaces as well as improving the energy efficiency of the indoor spaces. UR - https://ria.ua.pt/handle/10773/29350 Y1 - 2020 PB - No publisher defined