Previous examinations of building air free cooling using phase change material (PCM) plates were numerically conducted for specific arrangements/configurations of PCMs plates. Experimental investigation for models validations and comparison between the different configurations of PCMs are the shortages of these studies. The present research experimentally investigates the effects of the PCM plate's arrangements on the thermal characteristics of the charging and discharging processes. Parallel and staggered arrangements of different spaces between the plates were tested. The effect of plates' arrangements on the discharging time and quantity of PCM needed to fulfill the required free cooling are also investigated. The results showed that (a) in parallel arrangement, the discharge time decreases with decreasing spaces between PCM plates; (b) the discharge time in staggered arrangement is longer than that of parallel arrangement by 63%; (c) putting PCM plates on large numbers of rows increases the discharge time; (d) in staggered arrangement, the discharge time increases with decreasing spacing between PCMs plates; (e) the needed quantity of PCMs plates in staggered arrangement is lower than that of parallel arrangement by about 67%; and (f) generally, staggered arrangement with low spaces between PCMs plates is the optimum arrangement for air free cooling as it has the longest discharge time. |
