Energy efficient pumpable cement concrete with nanomaterials embedded PCM for passive cooling application in buildings

Abstract

The growing energy demand and energy requirements in the construction sector have paved way to the development and incorporation of the energy efficient materials and technologies in building envelopes. This research work is aimed at investigating the suitability of a pumpable cement concrete with nanomaterials embedded phase change material (PCN-PCM) for achieving energy efficiency in buildings through passive cooling application. In this work, an attempt was made to mix the flyash and ground-granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBS) as replacement materials for the cement along with the super plasticisers. To this engineered pumpable concrete, different sequential processes of adding the organic PCM (lauryl alcohol) embedded with nanomaterials (ZnO and hybrid Cu-TiO2) have been carried out. The mixing process was then optimised based on the incorporation of the PCM (0% to 20% with incremental steps of 5%) and the nanomaterials (0.01%–0.05% with incremental steps of 0.01%) into the cement concrete. The as-prepared PCN-PCM was characterized and tested from both thermal and structural aspects. The XRD results suggest that, the nanomaterials prepared were highly crystalline, and the adsorption of the Cu nanoparticles on the surface of the TiO2 nanoparticles were significant as observed from the FESEM images. The FTIR results confirm that the PCN-PCM composite were chemically stable for the mix-design combinations. In addition, the as-prepared composite achieved a characteristic compressive strength of 20 MPa, which confirms its structural stability. Furthermore, the experimental results reveal that, the PCN-PCM composite exhibited good latent heat potential by storing thermal energy and thereby; regulated the indoor air temperature of the test room around 24 °C. Based on the aforementioned attributes, the as-prepared PCN-PCM composite is expected to serve as an energy efficient candidate for achieving good thermal storage capabilities and structural integrity through passive cooling in buildings.