Applied Thermal Engineering 125 (2017) 1218–1227

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Applied Thermal Engineering

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

Research Paper

Numerical analysis on the advantage of using PCM heat exchanger in

liquid-flow window
Tin-Tai Chow a, Yuanli Lyu a,b,⇑
a
Division of Building Science and Technology, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China
b
School of Energy and Environment, Inner Mongolia University of Science and Technology, China

h i g h l i g h t s

PCM is incorporated into the liquid flow window to enhance thermal storage and heat transfer.

The energy performance of such a system with PCM placed at different positions was evaluated numerically.

A validation study was completed by comparing to published experimental results.

More hot water can be supplied during off-work hours for residential use.

Heat transfer can be enhanced for office use.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Liquid-flow window is a multi-glazing system with a flowing liquid layer in the window cavity. Thermal
Received 20 January 2017 transmission is largely restricted and warm water can be produced. These lead to considerable energy
Revised 9 June 2017 saving in buildings with daytime hot water demand. For service extension, it is necessary to enhance
Accepted 14 July 2017
the thermal storage capability of the system as solar energy is an intermittent heat source. In this study,
Available online 16 July 2017
the potential advantage of applying PCM onto the double-pipe heat exchanger of liquid flow window was
evaluated for different situations, including the unfavorable case with night-time hot water demand. The
Keywords:
enthalpy-based method was adopted for precise modelling of the heat transfer process in the PCM layer.
Liquid flow window
PCM heat exchanger
The validity of the numerical model was confirmed by experimental comparison with published data.
Energy performance Numerical studies were then conducted based on different design positions of the PCM layer at the heat
Thermal storage exchanger, and for use in residential and office buildings. The results show that comparatively, the design
Heat transfer enhancement with PCM located at the outermost layer of the heat exchanger has the best energy storage performance.
For the case with PCM sealed in the middle annular space, the inner PCM layer is heated up rapidly, while
the outer PCM layer remains at low temperature because of the continuous heat release to the cold water
stream. With the use of PCM, 31.4% and 11.4% more hot water can be harvested during off-work hours for
residential use in typical summer and winter weeks. And as a whole, the energy saving potential is
greater in summer than in winter.
Ó 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Liquid-flow window [1] is a multi-glazed system with a layer of
flowing liquid (like water) in the window cavity. Fig. 1(a) shows a
double-glazed system designed for thermosiphon-flow, with a
double-pipe heat exchanger sealed inside the top window frame.
The energy flow paths are indicated in Fig. 1(b). Heat transfer at
the water layer is realized mainly by thermal convection, on top
⇑ Corresponding author at: Division of Building Science and Technology, City
University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China
E-mail address: Lvyuanli1108@126.com (Y. Lyu).
of the direct solar absorption. The heat absorbed by the flowing
water is passed onto the feed water stream at the double-pipe heat
exchanger to generate warm water. Thus this system contributes
to building energy saving from two aspects: (i) room air-
conditioning load reduction in summer; and (ii) warm water gen-
eration for domestic hot water (DHW) preheating. Pumped flow is
also feasible to improve thermal convection at the expense of
pumping power.
Alternatively for winter operation, by circulating warm water in
the window cavity through external heating, a more stable and
comfortable room environment can be achieved. By circulating
warm water in the window cavity, the reduction in space heating

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2017.07.098
1359-4311/Ó 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 T.-T. Chow, Y. Lyu / Applied Thermal Engineering 125 (2017) 1218–1227 1219

Nomenclature

D1 Diameter of the innermost pipe, m ap thermal diffusivity of PCM, m2/s

D2 diameter of the middle pipe, m qp density of PCM, kg/m3
D3 diameter of the outermost pipe, m cp specific heat of PCM, J/(kgK)
f liquid fraction, - kf thermal conductivity of water, W/(mK)
hp sensible enthalpy, J/m3 qf density of water, kg/m3
L length of heat exchanger, m cf specific heat of water, J/(kgK)
r p1 inner radius of PCM annular space, m h heat transfer coefficient, W/(m2k)
r p2 outer radius of PCM annular space, m k latent heat, J/m3
t time, s
T temperature, °C Subscripts
Tm phase transition temperature, °C p phase change material
T hin hot water inlet temperature, °C h hot water
T cin cold water inlet temperature, °C c cold water
u flow velocity of water, m/s
z axial position, m

load can reach 18% [2,3]. This can also be realized by a similar pro-
duct named fluidised glass façade [4,5,6]. Two liquid filled cham-
bers seperated by a thermally insulated glazing system are
included in the façade. The outter liquid layer is used for thermal
blocking to reduce cooling load in the summer season [4]. With
dyeable liquid [5], an overall energy saving of 23% and 44% was
obtained in Munich and Dubai for office use. In the winter season,
the inner liquid chamber can be used as room heating device to
maintain a stable room temperature and better thermal comfort.
Solar thermal energy is transferred directly into the room space
through the inner liquid layer by emptying the outer liquid cham-
ber. And the above mentioned warm water circulation in the
chamber can be another effective approach for room heating load
reduction [6].
With the liquid flow window installation, Tomas and Carmen
showed that in Spain with pump circulation, in summer even with-
out air-conditioning the room temperature can be lowered by
17 °C as compared to the traditional air-sealed double glazing
option [7]. Energy saving potential for use in a health club in sub-
tropical Hong Kong has been evaluated. The numerical results with
thermosiphon flow indicated that the annual reduction in room
heat gain as compared to conventional double and single glazing
systems was around 32% and 52% respectively [8]. Overall speak-
ing, the system thermal performance was found affected by the
solar condition, the glazing properties, the liquid flow rate, as well
as the window system design configuration [9]. Sierra and Hernan-
dez showed that the impact of flow velocity on system thermal
performance depends on the solar heat gain coefficient (g). While
the g-value reached its maximum value at zero liquid flow, the
heat transfer both inward and outward can be minimized with suf-
ficient liquid flow [10]. With the use of reflective coating on glaz-
ing, the reduction in year-round space cooling load varied from
22% to 35% for a range of feed water flow rate [11]. Its thermal effi-
ciency, i.e. the ratio of feed water heat gain to the incident solar
radiation on glazing surface, can be ranged from 20% to 36.6%
[12]. Villasante et al. studied the use of particle-carrying liquid
flow in the window cavity [13]. Despite that attractive energy sav-
ing and cost payback potential have been fully demonstrated [14],
mismatch in hot water production and demand may exist in differ-
ent building types. In residential buildings, the hot water demand
is relatively high in the early morning and evening when the solar
radiation is weak. Thermal storage is then advantageous to cater
for the situation.
Phase change material (PCM) is widely used in solar thermal
Fig. 1. Water flow window (a) front view showing the water circuit; (b) side view
indicating the energy flow paths at window surface.
storage for its high heat storage density through latent heat
1220 T.-T. Chow, Y. Lyu / Applied Thermal Engineering 125 (2017) 1218–1227
exchange. The storage capacity of PCM per unit volume can be 5–
14 times of the sensible heat storage media, like water [15]. Abhat
categorized the low temperature latent heat storage materials
according to their properties [16]. Sharma et al. [17] reviewed
the thermal energy storage properties of PCM; the great applica-
tion potential in solar engineering systems was illustrated and
the importance of selecting PCM in accordance with the melting
temperature was highlighted. The supply period of hot water can
be extended effectively because of the additional thermal storage
[18]. Medrano et al. [19] evaluated the application of PCM in com-
mercial heat exchangers; they reported that higher efficiency could
be achieved. On the other hand, the charging and discharging per-
formance of the heat exchanger can be improved by using com-
bined PCM with different phase transition temperatures [20]. The
results were found affected by the temperature span as well as
the arrangement of combined PCMs [21–22].
As a key component in thermal storage, the performance and
heat transfer mechanism of various types of heat exchangers have
been extensively studied. Many experimental, analytical and
simulation-based research efforts had been on studying the PCM
melting and solidification mechanism. In their extensive review,
Agyenim et al. [23] pointed out that for double-pipe heat exchan-
ger, the heat transfer in the PCM layer is primarily dominated by
thermal conduction, whereas the temperature variation along the
Fig. 2. Arrangement of physical model of concentric-pipe heat exchanger with
PCM: (a) ‘‘Cut-away” view of insulated heat exchanger; (b) model configuration and
coordinate; (c) layers of heat-carrying materials in pipe, Case 1: HPC; Case 2: HCP
and Case 3: no PCM (double pipe).
axial direction is generally small as compared to that along the
radial direction. The numerical analysis of such problem is compli-
cated by the movement of the solid-liquid boundary. This can be
well overcome by using the enthalpy method [24–25]. Some
research studies with PCM encapsulation in simple structures like
pipe or rectangular cavity were carried out with the CFD tool ‘‘FLU-
ENT”, in which the enthalpy model was adopted [26,27,28] as well.
Very good accuracy was demonstrated through model validation.
In other studies, enthalpy-model based codes were also developed
and embedded in the TRNSYS system simulation [29] or Matlab
[30] for system performance prediction.
From the above, it can be seen that most previous studies on liq-
uid flow window addressed the advantages in reducing indoor
heating and cooling load, while several others examined the sys-
tem thermal efficiency. In this study, taken into consideration are
the different hot water demand patterns as experienced in residen-
tial and office buildings. By incorporating PCM into the double pipe
heat exchanger, the improvement in system thermal performance
can be expected from two aspects: (i) the increase in overall heat
energy transferred to the feed water stream, and (ii) the extended
hot water supply during off-work hours.
2. Research methodology
2.1. Heat exchanger configurations
Based on our previous parametric study, it was found that good
overall performance could be achieved for proper window config-
uration, such as 30 mm outer diameter and 20 mm inner diameter
for the double-pipe heat exchanger. In this study, the improve-
ments in energy performance with PCM applications were evalu-
ated by comparing the innovative designs with this double-pipe
heat exchanger design as the reference case. As the hot water
stream flows in the core pipe, two specific cases with PCM located
at the annular and the outermost layers are studied. The three
cases are indicated in Fig. 2, with the symbol H stands for hot
water, C for cold water and P for PCM layer.
Case 1: the PCM layer is located at the annular space between
the hot and cold water streams; so this case is labelled as ‘‘HPC”
in abbreviation.
Case 2: the PCM layer is added as the outermost layer of the
heat exchanger; this case is labelled as ‘‘HCP” in abbreviation.
Case 3: the original double-pipe heat exchanger without PCM
application; this is the reference case.
For our application, the thermal energy is in principle to be
stored in the PCM layer during daytime, and released to the cold
feed water at night, when solar radiation is not available.
2.2. Numerical modelling and simulation
2.2.1. Mathematical model development
The underlying assumptions and simplifications are listed
below:
(i) The thermal properties of the heat transfer fluid and the
PCM layer in the heat exchanger are temperature indepen-
dent, but the thermal properties of PCM are different in its
solid and liquid states; phase transition is considered occur-
ring under constant temperature (at 35 °C for RT35HC);
(ii) Convective heat transfer within the PCM layer is negligible;
only isothermal phase change is considered during the
melting-solidification process;
(iii) The outer surface and the two end surfaces of the shell are
well-insulated and thus behave as adiabatic system
boundaries;
 T.-T. Chow, Y. Lyu / Applied Thermal Engineering 125 (2017) 1218–1227 1221

(iv) Radial conduction heat transfer in the water layers is negli-

gible; and
(v) The thermal resistance of the pipe walls is negligible.

First consider Case 1, corresponding to the HPC case in Fig. 2 (c).

The mathematical models of individual layers in a 2-D cylindrical
coordinate are given below.

(i) For the PCM layer:


@hp 1 @ @hp @ 2 hp
½SPSD FTerm2 0½SPSD FTerm5  ¼ r ap þ ap
@t r @r @r @z2
@f
 qp k ð1Þ
@t
RT
where hp ðTÞ ¼ T mP qp cp dT is the sensible enthalpy of PCM, ap is the
thermal diffusivity, qp is the fluid density, k is the latent heat of
phase transition, f is the fraction of the melted PCM, cp is the specific
heat, T p is the temperature of the PCM layer, and T m is the phase Fig. 3. Configuration of the heat exchanger in Lacroix’s experiment.[27].
transition temperature.
For Case 2, the mathematical model of the PCM layer was taken
(ii) For the hot water layer: the same as that of Case 1. The energy balance equations of the hot

 and cold water streams are respectively:
@T h @T h 4hh @2T h
qf cf þ uh ¼ ðT p  T h Þ þ kf ð2Þ

@t @z D1 @z2 @T h @T h 4hh @2Th
qf cf þ uh ¼ ðT c  T h Þ þ kf ð11Þ
where qf , cf and kf are the density, specific heat, and heat conduc- @t @z D1 @z2
tivity of water respectively; uh , hh and T h are the flow velocity, con- and
vective heat transfer coefficient and temperature of hot water

respectively; and D1 is the diameter of the innermost pipe. @T c @T c 4hc D1
qf cf þ uc ¼ 2 ðT h  T c Þ
@t @z ðD2  D21 Þ
(iii) For the cold water stream:

 4hc D2 @2Tc
@T c @T c 4hc  D2 @2T c þ ðT p  T c Þ þ kf ð12Þ
qf cf þ uc ¼ 2 ðT p  T c Þ þ kf ð3Þ ðD22  D21 Þ @z2
@t @z D3  D22 @z2
The boundary conditions for the PCM layer are
where uc , hc and T c are the flow velocity, convective heat transfer
coefficient and temperatures of cold water respectively; D2 is the @T p
hðT p  T c Þ ¼ kp at r ¼ r p1 ð13Þ
outer diameter of the annular space, and D3 is the diameter of the @r
outermost pipe.
@T p
¼ 0 at r ¼ r p2 ð14Þ
(iv) The boundary conditions of the PCM layer: @r
@T p
hðT p  T h Þ ¼ kp at r ¼ r p1 ð4Þ @T p
@r ¼ 0 at z ¼ 0 and z ¼ L ð15Þ
@z
@T p
hðT p  T c Þ ¼ kp at r ¼ rp2 ð5Þ Those for the hot and cold water streams are the same as in
@r Case 1.
@T p
½SPSD FTerm1 9½SPSD FTerm4  ¼ 0 at z ¼ 0 and z ¼ L ð6Þ 2.2.2. Computer program validation
@z
The mathematical models were discretized with the fully impli-
where kp is the thermal conductivity of PCM; rp1 and rp2 are the cit method. The space steps in the PCM layer were 0.0005 m and
inner and outer diameters of the annular space respectively. 0.01 m along the radial and axial directions respectively. A FOR-
TRAN program was self-developed to solve the discretized equa-
(v) Boundary conditions for the inlets of hot and cold water tions with time step of 0.25 s. To confirm that precise results can
flows: be obtained from this grid structure, simulation runs were con-
T h ¼ T hin at z ¼ 0 ð7Þ ducted using a finer grid with space and time steps reduced by
25% to 0.0004 m by 0.008 m, and 0.2 s respectively. Negligibly
T c ¼ T cin at z ¼ L ð8Þ
small difference was observed in the results of thermal transmis-
where T hin and T cin are the inlet temperatures of hot and cold water sion. The difference in water heat gains was well below 0.3% for
respectively. the case of HCP, and was around 4% for the case of HPC.
Program validation test was then conducted with two sets of
(vi) Boundary conditions for the hot and cold water outlets published experimental results [31,32]. The configuration of the
(assuming fully-developed thermal flow): first experimental set-up is given in Fig. 3. This is a shell and tube
@T h heat exchanger with hot water flowing in the inner tube and PCM
¼ 0 at z ¼ L ð9Þ
@z filling the shell side. The phase transition temperature was 27.5 °C
and the initial temperature of the PCM layer was set at 9.5 °C. The
@T c two validation tests were carried out by taking the inlet tempera-
¼ 0 at z ¼ 0 ð10Þ
@z ture of hot water as 37.5 °C and 47.5 °C respectively (i.e. at 10 °C
1222 T.-T. Chow, Y. Lyu / Applied Thermal Engineering 125 (2017) 1218–1227

Table 2
Comparison of water heat gains with different PCM layer thickness (kJ).

Thickness (mm) 12 10 5
Residence Typical summer 4349 4347 4327
Typical winter 7786 7783 7776
Office Typical summer 4045 4045 4003
Typical winter 6811 6808 6797

Overall speaking, the accuracy of the self-developed model in our

study is good enough for performance analysis of the PCM heat
exchanger.
(a) Lacroix’s ΔT =10 °C
2.2.3. Determination of PCM material and layer thickness in final
analysis
In our comparative study, the hot water demand patterns for
office and residential cases were taken from ASHRAE and CIBSE
standard references [33,34]. Simulation runs were conducted to
compare the performance of the two alternative designs of PCM
incorporation against the reference case; the computations were
for typical summer week (2nd-8th September) and typical winter
week (8th-14th January) of the Hong Kong TMY data set. The
indoor air temperatures were set at 25 °C for summer and 21 °C
for winter. The charging and discharging mechanism in the PCM
layer was first analyzed. Then the variations of cold water heat gain
(b) Lacroix’s ΔT =20 °C in the heat exchanger as well as the thermal transmission through
the window system were compared.
The determination of PCM type was based on the typical varia-
tion of average cold water temperature in the heat exchanger in
summer, and also the availability as a commercial product. Accord-
ingly, RT35HC [35] was selected, which is a kind of pure PCM cap-
able of storing and releasing large amount of thermal energy at
almost constant temperature. Its working life is about 30 years
without degradation. The main physical properties are given in
Table 1.
The heat storage capability of the PCM layer varies with its total
mass, and hence the design thickness. In order to determine the
appropriate design thickness for use in the present study, three dif-
(c) Hosseini’s results ferent thickness cases of 12 mm, 10 mm and 5 mm were arbitrarily
chosen. The performance checks were from the aspects of water
Fig. 4. Comparison of simulation and experimental results. heat gain, with Case 2 ‘‘HCP” as the working example.
Table 2 shows the comparison of water heat gains for residen-
tial and office applications. It can be seen that for both building
Table 1
types, the total water heat gain increased with the change in
Thermo-physical properties of RT35HC [30].
PCM layer thickness from 5 mm to 10 mm. But no further increase
Properties Value Unit was observed with the increase of PCM thickness to 12 mm. Thus
Melting range 34–36 (main peak:35) °C the PCM layer of 10 mm was finally adopted in our numerical anal-
Congealing range 36–34 (main peak:35) °C ysis to ensure that adequate PCM has been in place in the
Heat storage capacity 240 kJ/kg evaluation.
Specific heat capacity 2 kJ/(kgK)
Density (solid) 770 kg/m3
Density (liquid) 670 kg/m3 3. Results and discussion
Heat conductivity (both phases) 0.2 W/(mK)

3.1. Charging and discharging performance of the PCM layer

and 20 °C above the phase transition temperature). The second test
was also a shell and tube heat exchanger with heat transfer fluid
(HTF) flowing in the pipe side and RT50 filling the shell side. The
inlet temperature of HTF was 70 °C and at a flow rate of 1 L/min.
The initial temperature of the PCM layer was set at 25 °C.
The fluid temperatures from simulation results were compared
with the experimental data as shown in Fig. 4. Good agreements
between the experimental and simulation results were achieved.
A slightly larger difference between T1 and T2 in the simulation
results as compared to the experimental results can be observed,
as indicated in Fig. 4(a) and (b). This was owing to the exclusion
of convective heat transfer at the PCM layer in the simulation runs.
3.1.1. Residential application
Temperature comparison of the innermost and the outermost
PCM layers at the middle position of the heat exchanger pipe are
shown in Fig. 5. In Cases 1 and 2, the PCM layer is located adjacent
to the hot and cold water streams, respectively. And thus the PCM
temperature at the innermost layer of Case 1 is much higher than
that of Case 2, as indicated in Fig. 5 (a) for both summer and winter
operation. This will finally ask for a larger amount of thermal stor-
age in Case 1. For the outermost PCM layer, it is well insulated in
Case 2, but is next to the cold water stream in Case 1. Thus the
PCM temperature is lower for Case 1 as compared to Case 2
because of the thermal extraction from the cold water stream.
 T.-T. Chow, Y. Lyu / Applied Thermal Engineering 125 (2017) 1218–1227
(a) Innermost PCM layer
(b) Outermost PCM layer
Fig. 5. Variation of temperature at the innermost and the outermost PCM layers for
residential use.
Temperature distribution within the PCM layer is much more
uniform for Case 2 with single-side convective heat transfer,
whereas a larger difference was observed for Case 1 with double-
side thermal absorption and release. The maximum temperature
difference between the innermost and the outermost PCM layers
are 7.78 °C and 1.89 °C for Cases 1 and 2 in the typical summer
week. They are 13.15 °C and 0.27 °C respectively in the winter
case. For Case 2 the temperature difference in winter is smaller
than that in summer, since only very limited amount of PCM is
melted in winter when interacting with the low temperature cold
water stream. However, it comes up to 13.15 °C for Case 1 in win-
ter. This is because, firstly, the inner PCM layer is heated to an ele-
vated temperature by the recirculating hot water stream. Then
because of the heat release to the cold water stream which will
be at extremely low temperature in winter, the outer PCM layer
will also be at a much reduced temperature level.
3.1.2. Office application
The PCM temperature at the boundary layers for office use are
given in Fig. 6. Cold water is supplied during daytime from 8 am
to 5 pm. Within this period, the temperature of the innermost
PCM layer varies in the similar manner as in the residential devel-
opments, i.e. the PCM temperature of Case 1 is higher than that of
Case 2 for both summer and winter. Temperature drop can be
observed when the water supply is stopped, and thereafter the
PCM temperature keeps almost constant. Extensive drop can be
observed for Case 1, as the thermal energy stored in the PCM layer
is released to the cold water in the adjacent annular space. The
temperature of Case 2 is even higher than that of Case 1 in specific
winter days, as illustrated from day 3 to day 7. This is because, for
Case 2, the PCM layer will be heated up by the adjacent cold water
1223
(a) Innermost PCM layer
(b) Outermost PCM layer
Fig. 6. Variation of temperature at the innermost and the outermost PCM layers for
office use.
stream at one side, and is well insulated at the other side. With no
further heat release, substantial temperature drop takes place. For
the outermost PCM layer, the temperature of Case 1 is slightly
lower than that of Case 2 because of the heat release to the cold
water stream in Case 1. Based on the same reason, the temperature
of the solid PCM layer of Case 2 is lower than that of Case 1 in the
last five winter days; the same happens to the temperature level of
the innermost PCM layer.
3.2. Energy performance
3.2.1. Residential application
The daily water heat gains from 7 am to mid night (for an 18-h
period) of the three cases are compared in Fig. 7. It can be seen that
the water heat gains of Case 1 are much smaller than the other two
cases during both typical summer and winter weeks. The differ-
ence is in the range of 66–67% . On the other hand, the favorable
water heat gains of Case 2 above Case 3 show the merit of PCM
storage especially under strong solar radiation. On the 5th and
6th days of the typical summer week with weak solar radiation,
their differences are small. The same happens to the third day of
the typical winter week shown in Fig. 5(b).
In Cases 2 and 3, the cold feed water in the annular space is
heated directly by the hot water stream in the adjacent flow path.
The better convective heat transfer characteristic of the liquid flow
at both sides of the pipe wall is an additional merit. While in Case
1, the PCM in the annular space imposes thermal resistance and
time delay in water heating. Large amount of thermal energy is
absorbed during the melting process of PCM. The outermost layer
is not totally melted, though the inner layer is at a higher
1224 T.-T. Chow, Y. Lyu / Applied Thermal Engineering 125 (2017) 1218–1227
Fig. 7. Water heat gains for residential use during (a) typical summer and (b)
typical winter week.
temperature level. The substantial temperature difference between
the innermost and outermost PCM layers can be observed in Fig. 5.
In the typical summer week, the total water heat gains are
4347 kJ and 4277 kJ for Case 2 and Case 3 respectively, represent-
ing an improvement of 1.63% with Case 2. These are 7783 kJ and
7773 kJ respectively in the typical winter week. However, more
hot water is supplied during off-work hours for residential use. It
is observed that during the off-work hours, 17.4% more thermal
energy can be obtained in Case 2 than in Case 3 during the typical
summer week. The gap is about 3% within the typical winter week.
The lowered winter performance can be the consequence of weak-
ened solar radiation and lower ambient temperature. This indi-
cates that the system benefits more from the addition of PCM in
summer than in winter. The average increase in off-work hot water
supply during typical summer and winter weeks is 159 kJ, which is
equivalent to 8291 kJ per year.
The useful water heat gains during the first two days of the typ-
ical summer week are used here to illustrate its hourly variation.
The simulation outputs are given in Fig. 8. In Case 2, the increasing
Fig. 8. Water heat gain of residential building on the first two days of typical
summer week.
Fig. 9. Thermal transmission through the window system for residential use: (a)
typical summer week; (b) typical winter week.
trend of heat release remains after 6 pm. The peak occurs at 7 pm;
this is when the hot water demand in residential building is also
the highest. The peak water heat gain of Case 3 occurs at 5 pm.
Its magnitude is lower than that of Case 2. For Case 1, the peak
water heat gain also occurs at 7 pm because of the thermal storage
effect. This is consistent with the observations in Case 2.
The thermal transmissions through the window system during
the typical weeks of Hong Kong are illustrated in Fig. 9, since the
direct transmission of solar thermal energy is unchanged. The dif-
ferences among the 3 cases are originated mainly from the change
in return water temperature. The room heat gains of Case 1 are rel-
atively high. This is because the thermal energy carried by the
flowing liquid is not well released. Instead, a part of the PCM stored
energy has been transferred back to the buoyant-driven water
stream since the layer of PCM adjacent to the hot water stream
was of the highest temperature. The room heat gain of Case 2 is
found lower than that of Case 3 during the daytime. This is because
of the thermal extraction of the PCM layer from the water stream,
and consequently resulted in a slightly lower return water temper-
ature. But the heat release of PCM during the night time leads to an
increase in return water temperature. These together bring about
relatively stable and uniform daily solar transmissions in these
two cases. Almost stable overall water heat gains are also observed
in Fig. 7. Also in winter, the lowered glazing surface temperature in
both cases is good for the reduction in room heat gains.
3.2.2. Residential application with totally off-work water demand
The quantity of thermal storage in the PCM layer is affected by
the daytime thermal extraction of the cold water stream. In order
to enhance hot water production during the off-work hours, the
thermal storage performance was also assessed by assuming zero
cold feed water flow during the daytime. And instead, the feed
water flow was taken within the off-work hours from 6 pm to
9 pm. Accordingly, the comparisons of water heat gains during
off-work hours are shown in Fig. 10. It can be seen that under this
 T.-T. Chow, Y. Lyu / Applied Thermal Engineering 125 (2017) 1218–1227 1225

Fig. 11. Results comparison thermal transmission during (a) typical summer (b)
Fig. 10. Results comparison of total water heat gains during off work hours in (a) winter weeks.
typical summer and (b) winter weeks.

circumstances the difference in water heat gains of Case 2 is the

largest. With the assumed off-work water supply running mode,
the water heat gains during the off-work hours of Case 2 at
2473 kJ is greater than that of Case 3 at 1887 kJ by 31.4%. This is
more than the difference of 17.4% based on the whole-day running
mode. Similarly, the difference in the typical winter week is 11.4%,
which is also greater than the 3% difference of the whole-day run-
ning mode. The benefit of PCM incorporation is thus enlarged.
There can be two reasons. Firstly, this can be caused by the heat
release from the PCM layer to the incoming cold water stream.
Secondly, the stationary cold water is heated to a fairly high tem-
perature in the heat exchanger for all day long until 6 pm. The
average increase in water heat gains during off-work hours reaches
470 kJ/week during typical summer and winter weeks. This is
much larger than the whole day running mode.
The comparisons of thermal transmissions are given in Fig. 11.
It is found that the zero flow during daytime can result in an
increase in room heat gains, though the significance is considerably
less than the effect of water heat gain. Also, the increase in room
heat gain during daytime is unlikely to result in significant increase
in energy consumption. In the absence of occupancy, air-
conditioning is generally not required.

3.2.3. Office application

For the PCM application in office building, the comparisons of
water heat gain among the 3 cases are shown in Fig. 12. Similar
to the results of the residences, the water heat gains of Case 1
are the lowest during both typical weeks. The water heat gains of
Case 2 remain higher than in Case 3.
Heat release of the PCM layer during the period with weak solar
radiation brought about higher water heat gains of Case 2 against
Case 3. In the typical summer week, the water heat gains of Case 2
and Case 3 are 4045 kJ and 3897 kJ respectively. The difference is
about 3.8%. These are 6779 kJ and 6808 kJ during the typical winter
week, corresponding to a difference of 0.44%. The larger difference
between the water heat gains of Cases 2 and 3 for offices than res-
Fig. 12. Water heat gain of office building during (a) typical summer week and (b)
typical winter week.
idences is because of its relatively large hot water demand and
consequently, the higher feed water velocity. Heat extraction of
the PCM layer is also enhanced. This indicates that higher water
flow velocity is helpful to heat transfer enhancement.
The heat transmissions through the window system are also
compared, as in Fig. 13. It can be seen that Case 1 always has the
1226 T.-T. Chow, Y. Lyu / Applied Thermal Engineering 125 (2017) 1218–1227
Fig. 13. Thermal transmission through the window system for office use during (a)
typical summer week and (b) typical winter week.
highest room heat gains, though its room heat loss is smaller than
the other two cases. As a matter of fact, larger room heat loss of
Cases 2 and 3 is actually favorable for subtropical offices having
year round space cooling demand. It will offset the internal heat
release from occupants, artificial lighting and miscellaneous
equipment. The room heat loss of Case 2 is more than Case 1 by
114 kJ. This is less than the difference of 360 kJ in residential appli-
cation. The reason is that for residential application, the extraction
of thermal energy by the re-circulating water stream during off-
work hours may lead to further temperature reduction at the win-
dow surface. And consequently, this leads to additional room heat
loss.
4. Conclusions
To fulfill the off-work hot water demand of residential building
and to improve the hot water supply capacity for office use, PCM
can be incorporated in the liquid flow window system. This has
been shown effective in peak water heat gain shifting and heat
transfer enhancement as well.
(a) The temperature of the innermost PCM layer of Case 1 ‘‘HPC”
is relatively high because of the direct contact with the hot
water stream. The heat release of Case 1 to the cold water
stream leads to a low temperature of the outermost PCM
layer.
(b) By incorporating PCM into the traditional double pipe heat
exchanger of the liquid flow window, more hot water can
be supplied during off work hours in residential building
with PCM placed at the outermost layer. Such load shifting
is found more effective in the absence of DHW feed water
supply during the daytime.
(c) The heat transfer enhancement effect of PCM application is
more evident at higher cold feed water velocity, as indicated
by the larger difference in water heat gains for office use
comparing to residential use.
(d) For both residential and office applications, the Case 1 design
generally increases the room heat gain. But in winter, the
room heat loss is less than the other two cases. Nevertheless,
for subtropical office applications with year round space
cooling demands, the winter facade heat losses of Case 2
‘‘HCP” and Case 3 ‘‘no PCM” through the advanced window
system is advantageous.
Acknowledgement
The work described in this article was financially supported by
the Public Welfare Research and Capacity Building in Guangdong
Province Special Fund Project 2015A010106001, and the Shenzhen
Science and Technology Funding Project JCYJ20160229165305551.
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