Marie Duquesne

Les sources d’énergies renouvelables représentent un gisement intéressant mais l’intermittence de leur production impose une meilleure anticipation des besoins et la mise en place d’un système de stockage d’énergie. Le stockage thermochimique par adsorption dans un système intégrant le couple zéolithe 13X/eau semble être une solution adaptée à un stockage de l’énergie à basse température pour une application aux bâtiments. Notre objectif consiste à reproduire le comportement de ce type de problèmes thermiques non-linéaires. En effet, une simulation précise et rapide du comportement du système sélectionné permettrait une régulation lors de son utilisation. Un modèle bidimensionnel de stockage d’énergie dans un adsorbeur cylindrique a été développé. La résolution numérique de ce modèle, dit d’ordre élevé, implique l’intégration d’un système de quelques centaines à quelques milliers d’équations fortement non-linéaires et couplés. Les coûts de calculs générés pouvant être prohibitifs, l’application d’une méthode de réduction a ainsi été envisagée afin de conserver les caractéristiques, le couplage des transferts de chaleur et de masse ainsi que les non-linéarités de ce modèle tout en limitant le temps de calculs. La projection de Galerkin des équations de ce dernier sur la base, obtenue grâce à une décomposition orthogonale aux valeurs propres, permet de construire un système dynamique d’ordre faible. Sa résolution est moins coûteuse que celle du modèle d’ordre élevé et reproduit correctement la dynamique de l’adsorbeur.

Latent heat thermal energy storage systems incorporate phase change materials (PCMs) as storage materials. The high energy density of PCMs, their ability to store at nearly constant temperature, and the diversity of available materials make latent heat storage systems particularly competitive technologies for reducing energy consumption in buildings. This work reviews recent experimental and numerical studies on the integration of PCMs in building envelopes for passive energy storage. The results of the different studies show that the use of PCMs can reduce the peak temperature and smooth the thermal load. The integration of PCMs can be done on the entire building envelope (walls, roofs, windows). Despite many advances, some aspects remain to be studied, notably the long-term stability of buildings incorporating PCMs, the issues of moisture and mass transfer, and the consideration of the actual use of the building. Based on this review, we have identified possible contributions to improve the efficiency of passive systems incorporating PCMs. Thus, fatty acids and their eutectic mixtures, combined with natural insulators, such as vegetable fibers, were chosen to make shape-stabilized PCMs composites. These composites can be integrated in buildings as a passive thermal energy storage material.

This work aims at assessing the applicability of a screening-oriented device dedicated to the establishment of increasingly complex phase diagrams of phase change materials. A thermography-based method has recently been proven to allow the detection of phase transitions of organic materials for multiple samples at a time. The phase transition detection capability of the infrared thermography method is here evaluated for metal systems based on well-referenced materials commonly employed in DSC calibration (pure sample of Gallium and a mixture of Gallium and Indium). The detected transitions are compared to literature data and DSC measurements. All transitions documented in the literature could be retrieved by thermography, and liquidus transitions are validated with DSC measurements. The encouraging nature of the results is discussed, and avenues for improving the method are considered.

This work aims to characterize phase change materials (PCM) for thermal energy storage in buildings (thermal comfort). Fatty acids, biobased organic PCM, are attractive candidates for integration into active or passive storage systems for targeted application. Three pure fatty acids (capric, myristic and palmitic acids) and two eutectic mixtures (capric-myristic and capric-palmitic acids) are studied in this paper. Although the main storage properties of pure fatty acids have already been investigated and reported in the literature, the information available on the eutectic mixtures is very limited (only melting temperature and enthalpy). This paper presents a complete experimental characterization of these pure and mixed fatty acids, including measurements of their main thermophysical properties (melting temperature and enthalpy, specific heats and densities in solid and liquid states, thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity as well as viscosity) and the properties of interest regarding the system integrating the PCM (energy density, volume expansion). The storage performances of the studied mixtures are also compared to those of most commonly used PCM (salt hydrates and paraffins).