Energy Conversion and Management 205 (2020) 112288

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Energy Conversion and Management

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/enconman

Thermal storage and thermal management properties of a novel ventilated T

mortar block integrated with phase change material for floor heating: an
experimental study
⁎
Jiwei Guoa, Yiqiang Jianga, , Yuan Wanga, Bin Zoua
a
School of Architecture, Harbin Institute of Technology, Key Laboratory of Cold Region Urban and Rural Human Settlement Environment Science and Technology, Ministry
of Industry and Information Technology, Harbin, China

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Integrating micro-encapsulated phase change material (PCM) in mortar could enlarge thermal storage capacity
Micro-encapsulated PCM of building thermal mass, however the reduction of conductivity would slow down thermal response. This article
Ventilated mortar blocks proposes a new method by integrating ventilation loops in floor heating phase change material mortar blocks to
Thermal energy storage enhance the energy flexibility, and achieve thermal management. Experiment was carried out to test the thermal
Thermal management
and energy performance of a series of ventilated cement based mortar blocks integrated with micro encapsulated
Space heating performance
phase change material. The amount of phase change material in each block was the same but the distribution
patterns were different, including upper concentrated, lower concentrated and evenly distributed. Three heating
scenarios including single heating, ventilation-heating and intermittent heating were conducted. Results in-
dicated that the distribution of phase change material had strong influence on the thermal storage and heating
performance. In single heating scenario, compared to pure mortar block, phase change material blocks could
increase 11.4% − −18% heating power consumption. In ventilation-heating mode, the outlet air temperature was
higher than the space air, which confirmed the inner space ventilation potential. Ventilation could also prolong
the required heating time and enlarge 7.4% − 13% power consumption of phase change material mortar block,
and reduce 22.7% − 25.6% cooling time. Especially in intermittent heating mode, the space heating performance
of partially concentrated phase change material blocks were much better. Thus, the thermal storage capacity and
energy extraction flexibility of the ventilated mortar blocks integrated with phase change material were vali-
dated, and partially distributed phase change material mortar blocks showed better thermal performance than
evenly distributed phase change material mortar block.

1. Introduction
Under the emergency of energy shortage and environmental pollu-
tion, and with the demand of cleaner and sustainable development,
increasing shares of renewable energy is penetrated in energy system
[1,2]. In IEA report, wind and solar will satisfy 6% and 4% of global
power demand in 2023 [3]. However the fluctuation and uncertainty of
these renewable energy source would affect the stability of energy
system [4,5], and lead to a surge of infrastructure investment [6]. As a
competitive alternative compared to other high investment energy re-
serves, building thermal inertia was reconsidered and has been thought
to open up new opportunities for energy system planning and devel-
opment [7,8], which was always ignored [9]. In this trend, the concept
”energy flexible building” arises, as Annex 67 proposed and in-
vestigated [10,11]. In this program, the core is to use building thermal
mass and other building heating, ventilation and cooling (HVAC) sys-
tems to manage energy demand [12] and achieve active interaction
with surrounding energy network [13], including shifting energy de-
mand [14], increasing energy demand flexibility [15,16] and pene-
trating more renewable energy [17]. Wang et al. [18] carried out nu-
merical simulation to study the effect of building thermal mass on the
operation flexibility and wind power penetration in a district heating
network. It was found that building thermal mass could reduce 36.3%
wind power penalty cost, which was resulted from the increase of
system flexibility. Similar investigations were made by Heinen et al. [9]
and Alahivl et al. [19]. Fully considering the effect of building thermal
mass could significantly improve the flexibility of both energy networks
and residential buildings. And accordingly, analyse and improve the
thermal performance of building thermal mass is the basic to achieve
flexible operation of energy systems [20], and provide characterization

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: jyq7245@sina.com (Y. Jiang).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2019.112288
Received 3 September 2019; Received in revised form 11 November 2019; Accepted 12 November 2019
0196-8904/ © 2019 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
J. Guo, et al.
Nomenclature
λ Thermal conductivity
Ql The accumulated heat loss from the insulation board
Qs The accumulated heating power
i The measured time step
δ The thickness of polyethylene foam board
A The surface area
Δt The sampling interval
Tins, u, i Temperature of upper insulation board surface at the
monitored time step
Tins, d, i Temperature of lower insulation board surface at the
monitored time step
Tu The average surface temperature of the mortar block
q The mean volume flow rate
for optimized control [21].
In most residential buildings, concrete and mortar are the main
structural thermal mass material [22]. As recently proposed, in-
tegrating PCM into cement mortar is a fascinating method to improve
the thermal and energy performance [23], for example, increasing
thermal capacity, reducing energy demand and improve thermal com-
fort [24]. Pure PCM is faced with leakage issue when directly in-
corporated with cement, so PCM is usually absorbed in lightweight
aggregates or encapsulated in solid polymer shell [25,26]. Compared to
lightweight PCM aggregates, the technique of encapsulated PCM is
much more mature and the cost is lower. The leakage of PCM and the
reduction of compressive strength are comparatively small than the
former [27]. Research on thermal performance and structural strength
of mortar samples integrated with micro encapsulated PCM is abun-
dant, and growing research is focusing on the actual dynamic thermal
performance in small scale experiment, even in actual buildings
[28,29]. Kheradmand et al. [30] embedded three kinds of micro en-
capsulated PCM with different melting temperature (10 °C, 26 °C and
28 °C ) in plastering mortar block and formed a cubic. Under typical
summer conditions, the inner temperature fluctuation reduced 2.6 °C ,
and the energy demand reduced nearly 5 times compared to pure
mortar cubic. Similar PCM mortar cubic was built by Rasoul et al. [31],
and different amount of PCM was added. The PCM mortar could sig-
nificantly reduce indoor heat loss, which was resulted from the increase
of heat capacity and the reduction of thermal conductivity.
In most current research, the PCM is evenly distributed inside the
mortar mix. In fact, the position and the distribution of PCM in cement
structure is also an interesting and meaningful problem. C. Li et al. [32]
made two kinds of PCM wallboard: hybrid and multi-layer using three
types of phase change materials with different phase change tempera-
tures. For the passive wallboard, the multi-layer PCM wallboard per-
formed better in both delaying heat transfer and releasing heat. Li et al.
[33] studied the effect of different positions of PCM layer in the wall.
When the PCM was installed closer to the exterior surface, the heat
transfer reduction was more significant. Similar conclusion was drawn
by Cao et al. [34]. Yun et al. [35] tested the performance of electric
heating PCM floor by changing the position of macro packaged PCM
fabric. The author emphasized that when the PCM board was placed
underneath the electrical panel, the heating time was reduced and the
heating energy efficiency was increased. From these research, the po-
sition of PCM is an important influencing factor for the thermal per-
formance of PCM mortar, and would be carefully designed in this re-
search.
Relevant studies indicated that fully use building thermal mass
could remarkably increase energy flexibility comprehensively con-
sidering the response speed, the amount of energy saving and the ac-
tually shifted energy [36,37]. However, the high thermal inertia of
thermal mass still make some indicators worse, especially for the
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Energy Conversion and Management 205 (2020) 112288
Tl The average temperature on the left side of mortar block
Tr The average temperature on the right side of mortar block
Tc The temperature at the center of mortar block
Tin The inlet temperature of air duct
Tout The outlet temperature of air duct
Td The average temperature of the lower surface of mortar
block
Ts, ave,50 The average temperature of the space at the height of
50 cm
Ts, ave,75 The average temperature of the space at the height of
75 cm
Ts, c,50 The center point temperature of the space at the height of
50 cm
Ts, c,75 The center point temperature of the space at the height of
75 cm
heating and heat recovery phase [36], which greatly influence the
thermal comfort, and affects the operation flexibility and energy man-
agement [38,39]. This issue would be the same for PCM mortar, and the
increase of heat capacity and the reduction of thermal conductivity of
PCM mortar should be dialectically treated and balanced [40,41]. To
overcome these issues, flexible measures should be adopted. Com-
monly, in order to increase the thermal response and operation flex-
ibility of thermal storage devices such as PCM tanks, integrating addi-
tional forced energy extraction systems, such as hydronics systems [42],
ventilation systems [43] or the combination of both methods [44] were
adopted. Such systems have been successfully applied in building, for
example, the ventilation ceiling [45], floor hydronic radiant system
[46] and ventilation wall,etc. This provides inspiring renovation ap-
proach of building heating system to achieve effective and flexible use
of structural thermal mass. Cinzia et al. [47] used thermal box to test
the thermal and energy performance of a ventilated brick wall. Venti-
lation was validated to efficiently reduce the thermal load. Ref [48] put
forward a internal ventilation concrete wall which was filled with PCM,
and a small scale experiment confirmed the thermal and energy man-
ageable character of the designed system. Chen et al. [49] built a
ventilation wall with air channels which were connected to solar col-
lectors. The thermal storage capacity and heat release capacity of the
passive wall were both enhanced, and the indoor thermal environment
was improved. Whiffen et al. [50] integrated PCM in active ventilation
thermal mass system, the prototype experimental result confirmed the
energy saving potential and relative good thermal conductivity. Com-
pared to other building structures, floor is not directly interacted with
outdoor environment, thus has lower thermal loss and is promising to
be used as thermal storage. Ref. [51] proposed a under-floor electric
heating system coupled with duct-less air supply and 15 mm shape-
stabilized PCM plates. PCM and ventilation could effectively shift the
heating electricity consumption to low price period. Navarro et al. [52]
designed a ventilation floor with PCM inside the air duct, and a solar
collector was installed to heat the air. The active system could achieve
20% energy saving compared to conventional heat pump heating
system. Coupled with building thermal conditioning systems, and by
improving the energy flexibility, the thermal storage capacity of floor
could be effectively used, and the energy demand flexibility would be
enhanced.
Except for the performance of mortar, the heat transfer between
duct air and the PCM mortar is also another important issue, which
would influence the heat extraction efficiency. Many factors would
influence heat transfer in air flow channel, including the air flow rate
[53,54], the thermal property of fluid [55,56], the internal structure of
channel [57,58], the length of channel [59], the thickness of air channel
[60], etc. Park et al. [61] built a simplified model for the hollow core
ventilated slab system, and the air mass flow rate was fixed. By opti-
mized control, the indoor thermal comfort was improved but energy
J. Guo, et al.
consumption was reduced. Ahmed et al. [62] simulated the thermal
performance of a hollow ventilation slab which was integrated with
micro-encapsulated PCM. They found that the thermal mass, ventilation
rate, property of PCM would all influence the thermal performance of
ventilation PCM slabs. And with the increasing of ventilation speed, the
heat transfer rate was significantly increased. Sun et al. [63] validated
that for the PCM ventilation slab, temperature and velocity of inlet air
had great influence on the energy charging speed and the amount of
heat storage. Laaouatni et al. [48] found that air ventilation in PCM
thermal storage unit would delay the occurrence of peak temperature.
Yang et al. [64] simulated the air heating performance of a ventilation
tube which was surrounded by PCM. With the increase of air volume
flow rate, the outlet air temperature and heating capacity increased, but
the surface temperature of tube remain almost constant. Research on
the influence of ventilation parameter on the thermal performance of
ventilated thermal mass provide guidance for this experiment.
From literature review, many investigations have been made on the
thermal response character and energy flexibility of structural PCM
cement mortar. And much effort has been made on using auxiliary
forced ventilation or hydronics system to increase energy flexibility.
This provides foundation and research direction for the innovation use
of the existed building thermal mass. However, nearly all research focus
on the effective use of PCM and ventilation system in wall. When in-
tegrated in electric floor heating system, little research is made to in-
vestigate the thermal and energy performance of mortar combined with
micro-encapsulated PCM and ventilation loops. Actually, as the change
of application scenarios, some important parameters should be recon-
sidered, for example, the better distribution of mirco-encapsulated PCM
in floor structure, and the better ventilation mode based on the con-
sideration of energy storage and extraction, etc.
This paper would conduct an experimental study to test the thermal
storage and thermal management character of a series of cement mortar
blocks, which are integrated with PCM and ventilation loops. The object
of this study is to investigate the influence of some structural and op-
eration parameters on the thermal performance of PCM mortar block
and inner space, including the distribution position of PCM, the venti-
lation mode and the intermittent mode. This analyse would provide
useful guidance for the design and application of such units and sys-
tems.
2. Materials and methodology
2.1. Materials
In this experiment, the cement was 32.5 ordinary Portland cement,
and the aggregate was standard sand, which had been filtered through a
sieve with an aperture of 4.5 mm . No additional plasticizer agent and
antifoaming admixture were added. The micro encapsulated phase
change material TH-ME28 used in cement mortar was commercially
available from Saimo Co. Ltd (Hebei, China), whose core was paraffin
wax and was micro encapsulated by polymer shell. The thermal prop-
erties of the used PCM, including melting temperature, solidification
temperature, melting latent heat and solidifying latent heat were ob-
tained by differential scanning calorimeter (DSC). Fig. 1 shows both the
melting and solidifying curves of test PCM sample. It could be observed
that the melting range is between 25 °C and 30 °C , and the solidifying
range is between 18 °C and 22 °C. The phase change range is close to
residential thermal comfort range, especially for floor heating system.
The other thermal and physical properties of PCM are listed in Table 1,
among them, the relative small density is quite promising to reduce the
weight of cement mortar.
2.2. Mortar mix
In order to investigate the effect of different PCM distribution pat-
terns, this experiment kept the amount of micro-encapsulated PCM for
3
Energy Conversion and Management 205 (2020) 112288
each mortar blocks the same. Three kinds of mortar blocks were de-
signed with different distribution of PCM, and another common cement
mortar block without PCM was made as control experiment. The ma-
terial distribution of each mortar block is shown in Fig. 2. In block B,
the micro-encapsulated PCM was evenly distributed, while in block C
and D, the PCM was concentrated on the upper and lower half of the
block respectively. In order to make such blocks, four kinds of com-
posites were prepared, and their compositions are listed in Table 2. For
the common mortar mixture, the water-cement mass ratio was 1: 2 , and
the cement-aggregate mass ratio was 1: 3. While for the PCM mortar
mixture, a practical method was adopted: the volume of added PCM
powder was the same as the replaced sand, and this method could
maximally reduce the reduction of structural strength [65,31]. It was
observed that the PCM used here has strong absorption of water. In
order to maintain the workability of mortar mixture, after initial test,
extra amount of water was added in mortar mixture 2 and 3, which
doubled the weight of PCM powder. All the materials were weighted by
electronic weigher with an accuracy of 0.1 g .
Fig. 3 shows the procedure of mortar blocks in this experiment, and
four steps were included. The first step was mixing. First, the cement
and sand were mixed and stirred for 5 min. Second, the water was
added and mixed for 2 min to homogenize the mixture. In the last, the
PCM powder and additional water were added to the mixture and
continued to mixing for another 2 min. This could maximally reduce
the damage of PCM capsules and prevent the leakage of paraffin wax.
The second step was perfusion. The mixed mortar mud was cast into
a square mould with an inner space size of
500 mm × 500 mm × 30 mm . Four ventilation copper tubes, with an
inner diameter of 10 mm and wall thickness of 1 mm , were placed and
fixed in the mould in advance, and the positioning error was ± 1mm .
This could prevent the position shifting of tubes caused by the dumping
and vibration of mortar. The inner walls of the mould were evenly
brushed with oil in advance to remove the mould much more easier.
The third step was vibrating. The moulds were shaken for 2 min to
empty the bubbles in mortar mix as much as possible. For block C and D
where two kinds of mortar mix with the same volume were needed,
contact moulded manufacture process was adopted [28]. The inner
space of mould was divided into upper and lower parts with equal
volume and marked dimensions. After mortar mix in the lower part was
spread and shaken, the process was repeated for the upper part and
then complete the multi-layer specimen. The last step was mould re-
moval and maintenance. The mould would be covered with plastic film
and kept in the lab with the air temperature of 23 ± 1 °C . For mortar
block A, the specimens were removed from the mould after 24 h, then it
would be packaged in plastic bags and placed in the lab for another
28 days. While for block B, C and D, the higher ratio of water and the
PCM had strong influence on the hardening process, and the specimens
Fig. 1. DSC result of micro-encapsulated PCM.
J. Guo, et al. Energy Conversion and Management 205 (2020) 112288

Table 1
Properties of PCM.
Item Average Density (kg/m3 ) Peak melting Melting Peak solidification Solidification
diameter (μm ) temperature (°C ) latent heat (kJ/kg) temperature (°C ) latent heat (kJ/kg)

Value 50 400 28.54 102.67 20.75 107.39

Fig. 2. Structural design of four mortar blocks.

Table 2
Mass and proportion of mix compositions.
Item Material Composite 1 Composite 2 Composite 3 Composite 4 Sum of
composite 3 and 4

1 Water (kg) 2.5 4.1 3 1.25

2 Cement (kg) 5 5 2.5 2.5
3 Sand (kg) 15 10 2.5 7.5
4 PCM (kg) 0 0.8 0.8 0
5 Total mass (kg) 22.5 19.9 8.8 11.25 20.05
6 Total volume (m3 ) 0.010 0.012 0.0068 0.0051 0.012
7 Mass fraction of PCM (wt%) 0 4% 9.1% 0 4%
8 Volume fraction of PCM (vol%) 0 17% 29.3% 0 16.8%

Fig. 3. Procedure of mortar blocks.

4
J. Guo, et al. Energy Conversion and Management 205 (2020) 112288

were demoulded after 72 h and tested after 28 days.
2.3. Thermal test
2.3.1. System description
In this experiment, the mainly focus is the thermal performance of
different mortar blocks and their influence on indoor thermal en-
vironment. The thermal mass of building envelopes was not considered.
Furthermore, the air ventilated through the block was directly ex-
hausted and not circulated inside the test unit in current stage. Guided
by these ideas, an artificial environment chamber was built referring to
GB/T 13754 − 2008. The inner ventilation experiment would be carried
out as follow-up work. Fig. 4 shows the simplified system schematic
diagram, which mainly consists of the test unit, the chamber, the inner
temperature control system and the duct air supply system. Fig. 5 gives
some pictures of the experimental system. The test unit was a steel box
with a size of 1500 mm × 1500 mm × 1000 mm . The dimension was
designed based on following consideration. In our heating experiment,
the Grashof number (Gr) exceeded 5000, meaning the free convective
flow within the test unit was disordered, and entered self-stimulated
status [66]. So the heat transfer of free convective flow within the unit
would be not influenced by the dimension. Based on this fact, the test
unit was designed as a scaling model referring to an actual room with
dimension of 4000 mm × 4000 mm × 2800 mm . The inner walls of the
unit were evenly painted with non-mentallic matt paint, and the surface
emissivity was above 0.9. Each side of unit box was sealed with tape to
prevent the external air entering the box.
To keep a uniform outside thermal environment of the test unit, a
top orifice ventilation system was built in the chamber, and the unit
was placed in the middle of the chamber and 20 cm above the ground.
The chamber was well insulated to guarantee a stable inner thermal
environment. The thermal conditioning system inside the chamber was
controlled by a PID controller, which monitored the temperature of
return air.
The duct air supply system consisted of cold air source, a pressur-
ized air pump, an air-air heat exchanger, an air separator and four air
flow value. A frequency modulator was installed in the power supply
system of air pump to modify the air supply volume. The temperature of
the cold air that flow through the air pump would rise about 10 °C, so a
recooling strategy was adopted. The air came from the cold source was
separated into two parts, one part flowed through the pump, the air-air
heat exchanger, the value in turn and finally flowed into the air duct.
The other part was used to cool down the air in the air -air heat ex-
changer. The air supply loops were all well insulated by polyethylene
pipe to reduce to minimum heat loss.
The lower surface of mortar block was heated by residential elec-
trothermal film, and the rated heating power was 55 W. In actual op-
eration, it was observed that the heating power would keep at 64 ± 1 W.
The power to heat ratio was assumed to be 1 for all experiments. To
maximally reduce the heat loss of mortar blocks, a 50 mm high density
polyethylene foam board, whose thermal conductivity λ was 0.025
W/m·K , was placed underneath the electrothermal film and used to
thermal insulate the four sides of the mortar block. To confirm the re-
lative small heat loss, the proportion of the accumulated heat dissipated
from the lower insulation board (Ql , calculated by Eq. 1) to the total
supplied heating power (Qs ) was calculated. Considering the fact that
for these blocks, the height is far smaller than the width, so the heat loss
from side surfaces could be ignored [67]. The uncertainty analysis of Ql
in this paper was referred to Ref [68]. In current experiment, the un-
certainty of Ql was 1.5%.
n
Ql = ∑ (Tins, u, i − Tins, d, i ) λAΔt / δ
i=1 (1)
2.3.2. Parameter measurement
Fig. 6 shows the arrangement of temperature sensors. The surface
temperature, including the mortar block, the electrothermal film, the
insulation board and the wall of test unit, were all measured by surface
probe sensors. Air temperature sensors were arranged at the height of
50 cm and 75 cm in the test unit separately to verify vertical tem-
perature stratification. Especially, the air temperature sensors were
specially handled by covering cylindrical aluminium caps to prevent
direct thermal radiation from heating surface. The inlet and outlet
temperature of ventilation ducts were measured by 8 armoured tube

Fig. 4. Schematic of system. 1) Duct air supply system; 2) Air shunt; 3) Mortar block; 4) Air interflow; 5) Test unit; 6) Indoor air ventilation and control devices; 7)
Top orifice ventilation system; 8) Environment chamber.

5
J. Guo, et al.
Fig. 5. Experimental apparatus.
temperature sensors. The above temperature sensors were all Pt1000
with an accuracy of 0.02 °C in the range of 0 °C – 50 °C . And they were
all calibrated by CTR5000 temperature calibration equipment (in-
cluding standard thermometer and silicone oil bath) in the temperature
range of − 10 °C–60 °C. The detail of temperature sensor calibration
could refer to [69,70].
The total air volume flow rate was measured by mass flow meter
MF5712, whose range was 0 − 200 L/min and the uncertainty was
± (2.0 + 0.5FS) . The flow rate of each air flow branch was measured
and adjusted by LZJ − 10 rotor flow meter with an range of 160 − 1600
L/h and an uncertainty of 2.5FS . Each rotor flow meter was equipped
with air valve to balance the air flow rate of four loops. The in-
stantaneous power and the total energy consumption of the electro-
thermal film was measured by PZEM − 014 power monitoring device.
The accuracy was 0.5% . All the parameters were collected by data ac-
quisition instrument Agilent 34980A every 10 s and transmitted to
computer.
Fig. 6. Schematic of sensors.
6
Energy Conversion and Management 205 (2020) 112288
2.3.3. Experiment description
In order to test the thermal performance of the mortar block, three
experiments were executed. As suggested in JGJ142 − 2012, the average
surface temperature of the mortar block, Tu , was taken as the control
signal. For the set of ambient temperature, in current experiment,
thermal mass and thermal insulation of envelops were not considered. If
the ambient temperature was set at a low level, even below zero, the
thermal storage and space heating performance would be hard to be
observed. Actually, the current research focused on horizontally com-
pare the thermal storage and heating performance of the four mortar
blocks, and comprehensively considering the demand experimental
time, the air temperature in the chamber was kept at 16 °C to guarantee
a heating scenario. The air velocity around the test unit was 0.5 m/s.
In the first experiment, a single heating test was carried out to test
the thermal storage character of mortar block. Initially, the mortar
block was naturally cooled down, which usually took about 3 h. When
Tu reached 18 °C , the electrothermal film was turned on to heat the
mortar block. Afterwards when Tu reached 30 °C , the electrothermal
J. Guo, et al.
film was turned off and the experiment would be ceased when Tu was
cooled to 18 °C again.
In the second experiment, different ventilation modes with different
ventilation starting time and volume flow rate were conducted to test
the thermal performance of mortar block. In ventilation mode 1, the
duct started to ventilate after the electrothermal film was turned off. In
ventilation mode 2, the duct was ventilated through the whole ex-
periment. The initial inlet temperature was controlled at 16.5 °C for
each experiment. The heating strategy was the same as experiment 1.
Different power frequency of the air pump, including 50 Hz, 40 Hz and
30 Hz were implemented to change the volume flow rate. And it was
observed that the corresponding mean volume flow rate (q) of supply
air were 55.1 L/min, 45.1 L/min and 30.6 L/min respectively.
The third experiment was to test the thermal and space heating
performance of mortar blocks in intermittent heating mode. The total
heating time was 240 min for each block. 3 kinds of strategies with
different intermittent heating period: 20 min, 40 min and 60 min were
adopted. When reaching the set total heating time, the mortar blocks
would be naturally cooled down, resemble experiment 1.
3. Experiment result and discussion
3.1. Reproducibility test
In order to verify experimental reproducibility, experiment 1 and 3
were repeated four times for each mortar block. Fig. 7 and 8 present the
variation of Tu and the center temperature at the height of 50 cm
(Ts, c,50 ), which were described by the mean temperature and the error
bar. The error bar was formulated by standard deviation. For the same
block, the maximum deviation of Tu and Ts, c,50 was 0.21 °C and 0.28 °C,
which showed a relative good reproducibility of this experiment. Fur-
thermore, thermal performance difference of the four mortar blocks
could be initially observed. And more detailed testing results would be
given later.
3.2. Single heating test
Fig. 9–12 show the measured Tu of each block, and Tu,1 is the mortar
surface temperature in single heating test. For the heating stage, block
A took about 3130 s, which was the shortest among the four mortar
blocks. Block B and C consumed similar heating time, and it was about
3600 s. While block D consumed the longest heating time, which was
about 3880 s and 24% longer than the pure cement mortar A. For the
cooling stage, it took about 16830 s for PCM block C to cool down to
18 °C , which was the most enduring among the blocks. The cooling time
of block D and block B decreased orderly, and block A had the shortest
cooling duration, which was 12.5% shorter than block C. Heating hys-
teresis could be observed for each block, and the highest Tu of block D
was 0.5 °C higher than block A.
According to heat transfer principle, under the same heating flux,
the temperature deviation between the upper and lower surface (Tu -Td )
is in proportion to the thermal resistance. From block A to D, the de-
viation were 2.69 °C, 5.44 °C, 5.96 °C and 8.55 °C . It could be found that
block B and C have similar thermal resistance, and block D has the
highest equivalent thermal resistance.
3.3. Ventilation test
In Fig. 9–12, Tu,2 and Tu,3 are the mortar surface temperature in
ventilation mode 1 and 2. The power frequency of air pump in each
experiment was set at 50 Hz. For ventilation mode 1, the demand
cooling time reduced a lot. Compared to naturally cooling, the cooling
period reduced by 19%, 22.7%, 23.2% and 25.6% from block A to D re-
spectively. So regarding to the cooling stage, mortar D is the most
sensitive to duct ventilation. Especially, the temperature distribution on
mortar surface was influenced by duct ventilation. As shown in figures,
7
Energy Conversion and Management 205 (2020) 112288
in the cooling stage, the descent rate of average temperature on the left
side (Tl ), which was close to the duct air inlet, was higher than the right
side (Tr ). For block C, the maximum temperature deviation between left
and right sides was 1.5 °C , which was the highest among the four blocks.
For other blocks A, B and D, the temperature deviation was approxi-
mately 0.9 − 1.2 °C . Thus ventilation has influence on the surface
temperature distribution of mortar block.
For ventilation mode 2 where the air duct was ventilated through
the whole experiment, compared to the scenario without ventilation,
the demand heating time was extended. The prolonged demand heating
time of block C was the longest, which was about 600 s. While block D
has the shortest demand heating time extension. Moreover, for each
mortar block, the cooling period was nearly the same for both venti-
lation modes. Furthermore, the uneven distribution of surface tem-
perature appeared from the start of duct ventilation. Block C had the
maximal temperature deviation between the two sides, which was
2.0 °C. And for other blocks, the deviation were between 1.3 °C to 1.7 °C,
which were all higher than ventilation mode 1.
Fig. 13 shows the average inlet and outlet temperature of the four
air ducts of each mortar block in two ventilation modes. Influenced by
the heating of mortar, the inlet air temperature (Tin ) maximally in-
creased about 0.2 °C during the experiment. For each block, the outlet
air temperature in ventilation mode 2 (Tout,2 ) was higher than mode 1
(Tout,1). In ventilation mode 1, Tout rise immediately after the air pump
was turned on. After about 2000 s, Tout reached the peak and slowly
decreased with naturally cooling of mortar block. It was observed that
block D had the quickest duct air heating rate, indicating that the
temperature of inside copper tube was the highest. Block B and C had
the slowest heating rate. And the maximal temperature difference be-
tween Tout and Tin was about 2.0 °C for block A and B, 2.3 °C for block C
and 2.5 °C for block D. In ventilation mode 2, Tout increased with the
heating of mortar blocks. For block A and B, the maximal temperature
difference between Tout and Tin were about 2.7 °C. While for block C and
D, it was about 3.2 °C . And Tout peaked at 5000 and 4200 s for mortar D
and A respectively, which were the slowest and the quickest among the
four blocks. Block B and C had similar Tout peak time. This indicating
that the inside material distribution has strong influence on the heating
rate of inside copper tube. It should also be noticed that the final outlet
temperature was still higher than the inlet temperature, so the thermal
energy in mortar blocks was not fully extracted. Restricted by the preset
control strategy, the left stored thermal energy in the mortar would be
not fully used.
Take mortar block B for example, Fig. 14 presents Tout of block B
under different ventilation rate. For both ventilation modes, the
Fig. 7. Reproducibility test: Tu of four mortar blocks.
J. Guo, et al.
Fig. 8. Reproducibility test: Ts, c,50 of mortar block A and C.
maximum Tout increased with the increase of ventilation rate. The de-
viation of Tout between the maximum and the minimum ventilation rate
in the current experiment (55.1 L/min and 30.6 L/min) was 0.4 °C in
mode 1, and 0.8 °C in mode 2. Especially for ventilation mode 2, the
outlet air temperature was higher than the space air temperature inside
the unit, which confirmed the feasibility of ventilation inner the test
unit. Furthermore, for the same ventilation mode, the growth degree of
outlet temperature slowed down with the increasing of ventilation rate.
And considering the additional operation power cost brought by the
increase of ventilation rate, there must exist economic ventilation rate.
3.4. Intermittent heating test
The space heating performance in single heating test and ventilation
test were not quite obvious owing to the short heating time. In this
section, the space heating performance of mortar block in intermittent
heating mode is analysed, which is more practical. Fig. 15 illustrates the
variation of Tu and Td of different mortar blocks. It should note that the
maximum Tu for all blocks were higher than 30 °C , which was higher
than the thermal comfort limit. Under the same intermittent heating
strategy, due to fact that Tu was higher than the phase change range of
PCM in the later stage of heating, meaning the PCM mortar blocks were
in sensible thermal storage, so the maximum value and the temperature
curve of Tu for every mortar block were nearly the same. However, Td
Fig. 9. Tu of mortar block A.
8
Energy Conversion and Management 205 (2020) 112288
varied between different blocks. In the heating period, Td of mortar
block D was the highest of the four blocks. And Td of block C, B and A
decreased gradually. According to Eq. 1, the proportion of Ql to Qs of
the four blocks were calculated and summarized in Fig. 16. It could be
found that the thermal loss of three PCM blocks was a little higher than
the pure mortar block, but the difference was not quite significant. And
block D had the most heat dissipation. Compared the three intermittent
heating strategies, longer continuous heating time permitted higher
peak temperature of mortar surface.
The air temperature inside the test unit is considered subsequently.
Firstly, the phenomenon of vertical temperature stratification is in-
vestigated. Take mortar block C for example, Fig. 17 gives
Ts, ave,50, Ts, ave,75, Ts, c,50 and Ts, c,75 in the test unit. For the same inter-
mittent heating strategy, the average temperature in the two heights
(50 cm and 75 cm) showed little difference. However, the temperature
in the center of the two heights were much more different, and both
were higher than the average temperature in the same height. In
comparison with the initial temperature, the temperature at the center
point of the box (Ts, c,50 ) maximally increased 3.0 °C . This indicates that
the block has considerable ability in heating the space directly over the
block, but performs poorly in heating the rest region. When applied
actually, the main heating region will be laid with blocks, so the tem-
perature in the center in current experiment is more meaningful and
will be the object of subsequent analyse. Fig. 18 illustrates the variation
of Ts, c,50 in the unit when equipped with different blocks, and the space
heating performance was discrepant. Block C had the best space heating
ability, and block D had similar space heating performance. However,
block B showed the minimum heating capacity. In the later heating
stage, Ts, c,50 of block B just fluctuated around 18 °C. Furthermore,
Fig. 19 shows the duration of Ts, c,50 above 18 °C for different blocks and
different heating modes. For block B, the duration was only about 3 h,
which was far lower than other blocks. Although Tu of block B was
similar to other blocks, the space thermal comfort duration was shorter.
And block C and D had the best and similar space thermal environment
maintenance capability. Thus the distribution of PCM in blocks had
certain influence on the space heating performance, especially in in-
termittent heating mode.
3.5. Energy analyse
In this section, the heating power consumption of mortar blocks in
experiment 1 and 2 is analysed, as shown in Fig. 20. Actually, the en-
ergy consumption is in proportion to the heating time, but the value of
power consumption has more practical meaning. The uncertainty of
monitored energy consumption value was ± 1W , which was concluded
J. Guo, et al.
from reproducibility test.
In single heating test, compare the three PCM blocks, although the
amount of PCM were nearly the same, the energy consumption were a
little different. Block B and C consumed similar heating power, and
11.4% higher than block A. And block D consumed the most energy,
which was 18.0% larger than block A. For block D, due to the fact that
the PCM was concentrated on the lower part, the heat absorption effect
9
Energy Conversion and Management 205 (2020) 112288
was the most significant which slowed down the inside heating process.
So under the current heating control strategy, the heating energy of
block D increased a little.
In ventilation–heating test, the heating energy consumption of each
block in mode 2 increased. This might be caused by the fact that air
took out the heat in mortar blocks, and increased the thermal resistance
in the vertical direction inside the block. Compared to single heating
J. Guo, et al. Energy Conversion and Management 205 (2020) 112288

Fig. 13. Tout of the four mortar blocks.

concentrated, the effect of ventilation on heating energy obviously in-

creases.

4. Conclusion

In this study, a series of new mortar blocks for floor heating that
combined ventilation loops and micro-encapsulated phase change ma-
terial are made. A specially designed thermal testing system is also built
to evaluate both thermal and the space heating performance of these
blocks. Three influencing factors, including the distribution of PCM, the
ventilation and the intermittent heating duration are investigated in
experiments. Although the results in current small scale experiment are
hard to be generalized in real scale building, they prove encouraging
flexibility of this new ventilated PCM block towards practical applica-
tion. The overall results show that the micro encapsulated PCM could
significantly enhance the thermal storage performance, and the venti-
lation duct inside the mortar blocks could increase the thermal release
flexibility. Following are the main conclusions and findings:
Fig. 14. Tout of mortar block B under different ventilation rate.

test, the energy consumption of block A and B increased 8.2% and 7.4%.
The increase of block C and D were 13.0% and 12.5% respectively.
In summary, the distribution of material inside the mortar block and
the ventilation mode have certain influence on the heating energy
consumption. On the condition of the same amount of PCM, when the
PCM is evenly distributed, the increase of heating energy is nearly the
same as pure mortar block. However when the PCM is partially
1)Although the amount of added PCM for each mortar block is only
about 0.8 kg, it significantly changes the thermal performance in
both heating and cooling stages. The thermal performance is highly
related to the distribution of PCM, which was always ignored by
related research. If PCM is concentrated on the lower part, the
heating period and electricity consumption increase most among the
PCM mortar blocks. In naturally cooling scenario, the upper con-
centrated PCM block extend the cooling period most.

10
J. Guo, et al.
Fig. 15. Tu and Td of four blocks.
Fig. 16. Ratio of heat loss to total heating power input.
2)Ventilation has significant influence on the thermal performance
of the mortar block, and increases energy extraction flexibility. For
both ventilation modes, the cooling time are nearly the same, and
are conspicuously reduced compared to naturally cooling mode.
Furthermore, if ventilation is accompanied with the start of heating,
it could extend the heating period for just hundred seconds.
3)Uneven mortar surface temperature caused by ventilation is also
observed in every block. Under the ventilation volume flow rate of
55.1 L/min, the surface temperature deviation between the part
upon the inlet of the tube and the part upon the outlet is about
0.9 − 2.0 °C. The distribution of PCM shows little effect on elim-
inating the uneven temperature distribution of mortar surface.
4)The ventilation mode, ventilation rate and the distribution of PCM
Fig. 17. Ts, c,50, Ts, c,75, Ts, ave,50 and Ts, ave,75 of block C.
11
Energy Conversion and Management 205 (2020) 112288
all have influence on the outlet temperature of air duct. The evenly
distributed PCM mortar block shows nearly the same duct air
heating performance as the pure mortar block, and both are poorly
than the partially concentrated PCM mortar blocks. Although the
maximal outlet air temperature increases as the increasing of ven-
tilation rate, the growing trend is tapering off.
5)In intermittent heating mode, the four blocks show different space
heating performance. For the block where PCM is concentrated on
the upper part, the temperature at the center of the test unit is
maximal, and exceeds 18 °C for the longest time. However for the
evenly distributed PCM block, the space heating performance is
relatively poor.
From the current experimental result, it is worth noticing that many
parameters could be further investigated and optimized, such as the
properties of PCM, the arrangement of ventilation tubes, the amount of
PCM, the economic ventilation rate, the noise caused by duct ventila-
tion, etc. And subsequently, further analyse will be carried out: the
physical properties of the PCM mortar block, including the thermal
conductivity, structural strength, etc.; the space heating performance,
where the air comes out from the duct is ventilated in the test unit. And
inspired by the work of [48,61], simplified thermal models would be
established and parameters would be confirmed according to current
test results, which is essential for in-depth parameter analyze and op-
timize control.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influ-
ence the work reported in this paper.
J. Guo, et al. Energy Conversion and Management 205 (2020) 112288

Fig. 18. Ts, c,50 of different heating mode and blocks.

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