Thermal performance and energy storage efficiency of date palm concrete walls enhanced with phase change materials
Journal of Energy Storage, cilt.178, 2026 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)
- Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
- Cilt numarası: 178
- Basım Tarihi: 2026
- Doi Numarası: 10.1016/j.est.2026.123747
- Dergi Adı: Journal of Energy Storage
- Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus, Compendex, INSPEC
- Anahtar Kelimeler: Building energy efficiency, Building space heating and cooling, Date palm concrete, Latent heat, Phase change material, Thermal energy storage
- Kocaeli Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet
Özet
Building envelope walls play an important role in controlling heat transfer and reducing energy demand by moderating outdoor thermal loads. In hot semi-arid climates, enhancing wall thermal inertia is an effective passive approach to limit indoor temperature fluctuations and improve summer comfort. In this study, date palm concrete (DPC) is investigated as a bio-based wall material due to its favorable thermal inertia compared to conventional brick construction. To further enhance the wall's heat-storage capacity and delay heat transfer, phase change materials (PCMs) are integrated into the wall assembly. The thermal performance of brick and DPC walls, with and without PCM layers of different melting temperatures, is evaluated under HVAC ON conditions to assess heating and cooling energy consumption and identify the optimal PCM configuration. Thereafter, the selected PCM is applied to all wall configurations and the analysis is extended to free-floating conditions (HVAC OFF) to examine indoor air temperature regulation during summer. The study further investigates wall surface temperatures and heat-flux behavior for different wall orientations to evaluate thermal damping and heat-transfer attenuation. The results confirm that DPC significantly enhances wall thermal inertia compared to conventional brick construction. Under HVAC-ON conditions, annual heating demand is reduced by 57%, while cooling demand reduced by 35%. The integration of PCM further improves performance, with the interior RT25 configuration providing the highest energy savings. Under HVAC-OFF summer conditions, DPC shows a longer time lag (7 h vs. 4 h) and a lower decrement factor (0.09 vs. 0.38), and the addition of RT25 reduces peak indoor air temperature by up to 3.5 °C. In all cases, PCM outperforms PSM, confirming the dominant contribution of latent heat storage activated near the comfort temperature range.