Mitigation of heat infiltration into the building: an experimental and numerical investigation on reinforced cement concrete roof slab integrated with nano-enhanced phase change material

The rising energy consumption of buildings necessitates effective passive thermal management to mitigate the cooling load and related environmental effects. In this work, the thermal performance of a reinforced concrete cement (RCC) roof slab combined with a nano-enhanced phase change material (NePCM) is investigated. NePCMs combines PCMs with nanoparticles that improve heat storage and heat transfer . Two similar buildings were constructed using plaster-finished brick masonry walls with interior measurements of 1.82 m × 1.21 m × 3.04 m. One buildings RCC roof was integrated with NePCM while another consist of RCC roof as a reference. The experiments wereconducted in Chennai, India during summer from April to July 2024. The NePCM-integrated roof exhibited an average decrease in indoor temperature of about 3.2°C compared to RCC roof. Results showed a significant reduction (∼60%) in the heat flux through the NePCM-integrated roof, indicating a significant decline in heat infiltration and possible cooling load. A numerical model was established and verified with measured results. The model predicted the inner roof surface temperature within an average error of 2.94%, making good agreement with experimental observations. Therefore, the NePCM-integrated RCC roof can be an effective passive cooling solution towards energy-efficient buildings.