Efficient Characterization of Macroscopic Composite Cement Mortars with Various Contents of Phase Change Material

The determination of both the thermal and thermodynamical properties of a composite material containing phase change material is done thanks to an inverse method, which combines experimental measurements and numerical computations. Given first an in-house experiment, which allows us to test samples at a macroscopic scale (i.e., close to the real conditions) and to set various types of thermal stresses, and secondly the simulation of the corresponding thermal behavior, relying on an accurate thermodynamical modeling and taking into account the real operating parameters (e.g., thermal contact resistances and non-symmetric heat fluxes on each side), it is possible to characterize the solid and liquid thermal conductivities and heat capacities, as well as the temperature range associated with a non-isothermal phase transition and the associated latent heat. The specificity of the present approach is to allow, in a single step, a characterization of all the involved thermo-physical parameters that are usually required in simulation tools (e.g., EnergyPlus...). Moreover, the hitherto studies dealing with repeatability and uncertainties of the enthalpy characterization are generally very scant and not encountered very often or only with qualitative assessments. This is a clear caveat, especially when considering any system design. Therefore, for the first time ever, the present paper pays a special attention to the repeatability of the identification method and studies the scedasticity of the results, that is to say the deviations of the determined enthalpy curves, not only from a qualitative point of view but also by proposing quantitative arguments. Finally, the results are very promising since the agreement between all trials is excellent, the maximum error for all parameters being lower than 4%. This is far below the current quality thresholds admitted when characterizing the enthalpy of a phase change material.