Applications of Phase Change Materials (PCM) in Concrete Structures: Latest Advances and Prospects

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Civil Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2021) | Viewed by 498
Related Special Issue: Green Concrete for a Better Sustainable Environment and Green Concrete for a Better Sustainable Environment II

Special Issue Editors

School of Architecture and Built Environment, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia
Interests: sustainable and low carbon concrete; advanced composite materials; phase change materials; nanomaterials; energy efficient building design; environmental sustainability; waste management
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
College of Civil and Transportation Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China
Interests: structural functionalization and flexible structure; energy storage concrete system; underground space and underground structure; intelligent construction

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues, 

Nowadays, the building sector is one of the most dominant energy consumers with a 30% total share of global energy consumption; in addition, it is responsible for nearly 40% of total direct and indirect CO2 emissions. It is critical to enhance the energy efficiency of buildings to mitigate global warming. In the last decade, advances in thermal energy storage (TES) techniques using phase change material (PCM) have gained much attention among researchers, mainly to reduce energy consumption and to promote the use of renewable energy sources such as solar energy. PCMs with high latent heat, stable chemical properties and that are non-toxic in nature have great potential in energy storage, and their combination with concrete can play a significant role in improving the energy efficiency of buildings by incorporating PCMs into the passive latent heat thermal storage systems of building's walls, ceilings, floors or other structural elements. Here, “passive” means that the phase-change processes occur without resorting to mechanical equipment. PCM technology is one of the most promising technologies available for the development of high performance and energy-efficient buildings and, therefore, considered to be one of the most effective and ongoing fields of research. 

This Special Issue of the journal Applied Sciences, on the topic of “Applications of Phase Change Materials in Concrete Structures: Latest Advances and Prospects”, aims to cover recent advances in the development and application of phase change materials in concrete structures and deliberate over what can best be done to leverage the opportunities. 

Proposed Topics: 

This Special Issue proposes (but is not limited to) the following topics:

  • PCM composites;
  • PCM integration methods;
  • PCM-based thermal energy storage systems;
  • PCM application in cement-based materials;
  • PCM energy geostructures;
  • Reliability of PCM performance;
  • Simulation and modeling;
  • Economic and environmental evaluation. 

Prof. Dr. Patrick Tang
Prof. Dr. Hongzhi Cui
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Applied Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • phase change materials
  • latent heat thermal energy storage
  • integration methods
  • numerical modeling
  • lifecycle analysis

Published Papers

There is no accepted submissions to this special issue at this moment.
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