Title:
Microstructure-Guided Numerical Simulation to Evaluate the Influence of Phase Change Materials (PCMs) on the Thermal Response of Concrete Pavements
Author(s):
Sumeru Nayak
Publication:
Web Session
Volume:
Issue:
Appears on pages(s):
Keywords:
DOI:
Date:
3/24/2019
Abstract:
The use of phase change materials in infrastructure has gained significant attention in the recent years owing to its robust thermal performance. This study implements a multiscale numerical simulation framework using finite element analysis to evaluate the influence of Phase Change Materials (PCMs) on the thermal response of concrete pavements in places with significant winter weather conditions such as New England area of the United States. The influence of transition temperature of PCMs, PCM-dosage, environmental and weather conditions are considered in the analysis. The analysis is carried out at different mutually-interactive length scales and the latent-heat associated with different PCMs is efficiently incorporated into the simulation framework. The simulations show significant reductions in the number of freeze-thaw cycles experienced by the pavement in a winter season upon judicious selection of PCM-type and dosage. The numerical simulation framework thus provides efficient means of optimizing the material design of such durable concrete pavements.