Development of phase change materials for new generation building materials

This study aims to improve thermal performance of concrete mixes, while keeping their mechanical strength, by adding Phase Change Materials (PCM). Microencapsulated paraffin with phase change temperatures of 26 ? C and 23 ? C and latent heat of 110 J/g was used as PCMs. For the concrete mixes with PCM developed here, it was seen that rheoplastic property was improved with increasing PCM content. Mechanical strength of concrete mixes with different PCM contents were decreased with respect to a blind (no PCM) sample from correponding concrete class of C85 to C60. Heat stored by all the concrete mixes with PCM was measured to be higher than the blind sample and the maximum value was attained as 7750 J for conctrete mix with 10%PCM, even though it had the lowest mass of all the samples. Hidration heat and temperature measurement experiments also revealed that PCM had an enhancing effect, but these results need to be confirmed with longer duration experiments. The results achieved show that the concrete mixes with PCMs are candidate products that can conserve energy from heating in winter and cooling in summer for building industry. Reduction of fossil fuel consumption in buildings, which is the second largest energy consuming sector in Turkey, can lead to significant reduction of greenhouse gases that lead to climate change.