Phase-change construction materials for sustainable building applications

Abstract

This study presents a numerical investigation of phase-change materials (PCMs) integrated with hemp wool insulation in building envelope assemblies, simulated using WUFI Pro software under Mediterranean climatic conditions. Four wall assembly configurations, a conventional hollow-brick reference (Wall A), a PCM-enhanced system (Wall B), a hemp wool-insulated system (Wall C), and a combined PCM + hemp wool system (Wall D) are evaluated with respect to their thermal energy storage capacity, radiative heat-transfer behavior, solar absorptance characteristics, and dynamic thermal performance. The governing heat transfer and surface boundary condition equations implemented in WUFI Pro are presented. Simulation results demonstrate that the combined PCM + hemp wool assembly reduces peak cooling loads by 30.1%, decreases interior temperature swings from 8.4 °C to 3.1 °C, increases thermal time lag from 4.2 h to 9.6 h, and achieves 34.8% annual cooling energy savings compared to the reference wall. These results confirm the strong synergistic benefit of combining bio-based thermal insulation with latent heat storage for passive building cooling in Northern Morocco.