Micro-scale thermal analysis of energy storage in cement-based composites containing phase change materials (PCMS)

In the last decades, the use of smart components embedded inside cementitious materials, like Phase Change Material (PCM), has become a more and more attractive solution for saving energy and for providing a more efficient thermal comfortability to modern buildings. Present research running at the Institute of Construction and Building Materials (WiB) of TU-Darmstadt deals with the investigation of advanced coupling of two physical mechanisms represented by a heat problem and microstructural heterogeneities. The thermal response of such a composite system, along with occurring phase change phenomena, will be simulated at the microscale level. A virtual 3D porous microstructure with embedded PCMs, created with the available hydration model Hymostruc, provides a fundamental basis for the analysis of the morphological influence of PCMs on the effective thermal diffusion parameters. The work is aimed at investigating the influence of the morphological effect on the thermal effective properties of hydrating cement combined with Micro-encapsulated (M)-PCMs. Laboratory characterization of the PCMs was performed using a designated test set-up. The thermal performance of cement-based pastes with and without MPCMs were experimentally evaluated and used as benchmark for calibration purposes. Particularly, the obtained results combined with specific heat capacity of PCM-cement pastes and thermal conductivity measurements were taken as reference for validating the proposed numerical technique.Publicado en: Mecánica Computacional vol. XXXV, no. 41Facultad de Ingenierí

Multiobjective Optimization of Cement-Based Panels Enhanced with Microencapsulated Phase Change Materials for Building Energy Applications

Thermal energy storage using phase change materials (PCMs) is a promising technology for improving the thermal performance of buildings and reducing their energy consumption. However, the effectiveness of passive PCMs in buildings depends on their optimal design regarding the building typology and typical climate conditions. Within this context, the present contribution introduces a novel multiobjective computational method to optimize the thermophysical properties of cementitious building panels enhanced with a microencapsulated PCM (MPCM). To achieve this, a parametric model for PCM-based cementitious composites is developed in EnergyPlus, considering as design variables the melting temperature of PCMs and the thickness and thermal conductivity of the panel. A multiobjective genetic algorithm is dynamically coupled with the building energy model to find the best trade-off between annual heating and cooling loads. The optimization results obtained for a case study building in Sofia (Bulgaria-EU) reveal that the annual heating and cooling loads have contradictory performances regarding the thermophysical properties studied. A thick MPCM-enhanced panel with a melting temperature of 22 (Formula presented.) C is needed to reduce the heating loads, while a thin panel with a melting temperature of 27 (Formula presented.) C is required to mitigate the cooling loads. Using these designs, the annual heating and cooling loads decrease by 23% and 3%, respectively. Moreover, up to 12.4% cooling load reduction is reached if the thermal conductivity of the panels is increased. Therefore, it is also concluded that the thermal conductivity of the cement-based panels can significantly influence the effectiveness of MPCMs in buildings.Fil: Bre, Facundo. Universitat Technische Darmstadt; Alemania. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Santa Fe. Centro de Investigaciones en Métodos Computacionales. Universidad Nacional del Litoral. Centro de Investigaciones en Métodos Computacionales; ArgentinaFil: Caggiano, Antonio. Università degli Studi di Genova; ItaliaFil: Koenders, Eduardus A. B.. Universitat Technische Darmstadt; Alemani

Multiobjective Optimization of Cement-Based Panels Enhanced with Microencapsulated Phase Change Materials for Building Energy Applications

Thermal energy storage using phase change materials (PCMs) is a promising technology for improving the thermal performance of buildings and reducing their energy consumption. However, the effectiveness of passive PCMs in buildings depends on their optimal design regarding the building typology and typical climate conditions. Within this context, the present contribution introduces a novel multiobjective computational method to optimize the thermophysical properties of cementitious building panels enhanced with a microencapsulated PCM (MPCM). To achieve this, a parametric model for PCM-based cementitious composites is developed in EnergyPlus, considering as design variables the melting temperature of PCMs and the thickness and thermal conductivity of the panel. A multiobjective genetic algorithm is dynamically coupled with the building energy model to find the best trade-off between annual heating and cooling loads. The optimization results obtained for a case study building in Sofia (Bulgaria-EU) reveal that the annual heating and cooling loads have contradictory performances regarding the thermophysical properties studied. A thick MPCM-enhanced panel with a melting temperature of 22 (Formula presented.) C is needed to reduce the heating loads, while a thin panel with a melting temperature of 27 (Formula presented.) C is required to mitigate the cooling loads. Using these designs, the annual heating and cooling loads decrease by 23% and 3%, respectively. Moreover, up to 12.4% cooling load reduction is reached if the thermal conductivity of the panels is increased. Therefore, it is also concluded that the thermal conductivity of the cement-based panels can significantly influence the effectiveness of MPCMs in buildings

Study of W boson production in PbPb and pp collisions at sqrt(s[NN]) = 2.76 TeV

A measurement is presented of W-boson production in PbPb collisions carried out at a nucleon-nucleon (NN) centre-of-mass energy sqrt(s[NN]) of 2.76 TeV at the LHC using the CMS detector. In data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 7.3 inverse microbarns, the number of W to mu mu-neutrino decays is extracted in the region of muon pseudorapidity abs(eta[mu])<2.1 and transverse momentum pt[mu]>25 GeV. Yields of muons found per unit of pseudorapidity correspond to (159 +/- 10 (stat.) +/- 12 (syst.)) 10E-8 W(plus) and (154 +/- 10 (stat.) +/- 12 (syst.)) 10E-8 W(minus) bosons per minimum-bias PbPb collision. The dependence of W production on the centrality of PbPb collisions is consistent with a scaling of the yield by the number of incoherent NN collisions. The yield of W bosons is also studied in a sample of pp interactions at sqrt(s)= 2.76 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 231 inverse nanobarns. The individual W(plus) and W(minus) yields in PbPb and pp collisions are found to agree, once the neutron and proton content in Pb nuclei is taken into account. Likewise, the difference observed in the dependence of the positive and negative muon production on pseudorapidity is consistent with next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculations.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters

Search for same-sign top-quark pair production at √s = 7 TeV and limits on flavour changing neutral currents in the top sector

An inclusive search for same-sign top-quark pair production in pp collisions at √s = 7 TeV is performed using a data sample recorded with the CMS detector in 2010, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35 pb^(−1). This analysis is motivated by recent studies of pp → tt reporting mass-dependent forward-backward asymmetries larger than expected from the standard model. These asymmetries could be due to Flavor Changing Neutral Currents (FCNC) in the top sector induced by t-channel exchange of a massive neutral vector boson (Z′). Models with such a Z′ also predict enhancement of same-sign top-pair production in pp or pp collisions. Limits are set as a function of the Z′ mass and its couplings to u and t quarks. These limits disfavour the FCNC interpretation of the Tevatron results

Measurement of event shapes in deep inelastic scattering at HERA

Inclusive event-shape variables have been measured in the current region of the Breit frame for neutral current deep inelastic ep scattering using an integrated luminosity of 45.0 pb^-1 collected with the ZEUS detector at HERA. The variables studied included thrust, jet broadening and invariant jet mass. The kinematic range covered was 10 < Q^2 < 20,480 GeV^2 and 6.10^-4 < x < 0.6, where Q^2 is the virtuality of the exchanged boson and x is the Bjorken variable. The Q dependence of the shape variables has been used in conjunction with NLO perturbative calculations and the Dokshitzer-Webber non-perturbative corrections (`power corrections') to investigate the validity of this approach.Comment: 7+25 pages, 6 figure

First measurement of hadronic event shapes in pp collisions at √s = 7 TeV

Hadronic event shapes have been measured in proton–proton collisions at √s = 7 TeV source, with a data sample collected with the CMS detector at the LHC. The sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 3.2 pb^(−1). Event-shape distributions, corrected for detector response, are compared with five models of QCD multijet production

Observation of isolated high-E_T photons in deep inelastic scattering

First measurements of cross sections for isolated prompt photon production in deep inelastic ep scattering have been made using the ZEUS detector at the HERA electron-proton collider using an integrated luminosity of 121 pb^-1. A signal for isolated photons in the transverse energy and rapidity ranges 5 < E_T^gamma < 10 GeV and -0.7 < eta^gamma < 0.9 was observed for virtualities of the exchanged photon of Q^2 > 35 GeV^2. Cross sections are presented for inclusive prompt photons and for those accompanied by a single jet in the range E_T^jet \geq 6 GeV and -1.5 \leq eta^jet < 1.8. Calculations at order alpha^3alpha_s describe the data reasonably well.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figure