Abstract
This paper presents a microstructure-guided numerical homogenization technique to predict the effective thermal conductivity of a hierarchical cement-based material containing phase change material (PCM)-impregnated lightweight aggregates (LWA). Porous inclusions such as LWAs embedded in a cementitious matrix are filled with multiple fluid phases including PCM to obtain desirable thermal properties for building and infrastructure applications. Simulations are carried out on realistic three-dimensional microstructures generated using pore structure information. An inverse analysis procedure is used to extract the intrinsic thermal properties of those microstructural components for which data is not available. The homogenized heat flux is predicted for an imposed temperature gradient from which the effective composite thermal conductivity is computed. The simulated effective composite thermal conductivities are found to correlate very well with experimental measurements for a family of LWA-PCM composites considered in the paper. Comparisons with commonly used analytical homogenization models show that the microstructure-guided simulation approach provides superior results for composites exhibiting large property contrast between phases. By linking the microstructure and thermal properties of hierarchical materials, an efficient framework is available for optimizing the material design to improve thermal efficiency of a wide variety of heterogeneous materials.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 20-28 |
| Number of pages | 9 |
| Journal | Cement and Concrete Composites |
| Volume | 87 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Mar 1 2018 |
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Keywords
- Finite element
- Lightweight aggregate
- Microstructure
- Numerical homogenization
- Phase change materials (PCMs)
- Thermal conductivity
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Building and Construction
- Materials Science(all)
Cite this
Microstructure-guided numerical simulations to predict the thermal performance of a hierarchical cement-based composite material. / Das, Sumanta; Aguayo, Matthew; Rajan, Subramaniam; Sant, Gaurav; Neithalath, Narayanan.
In: Cement and Concrete Composites, Vol. 87, 01.03.2018, p. 20-28.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Microstructure-guided numerical simulations to predict the thermal performance of a hierarchical cement-based composite material
AU - Das, Sumanta
AU - Aguayo, Matthew
AU - Rajan, Subramaniam
AU - Sant, Gaurav
AU - Neithalath, Narayanan
PY - 2018/3/1
Y1 - 2018/3/1
N2 - This paper presents a microstructure-guided numerical homogenization technique to predict the effective thermal conductivity of a hierarchical cement-based material containing phase change material (PCM)-impregnated lightweight aggregates (LWA). Porous inclusions such as LWAs embedded in a cementitious matrix are filled with multiple fluid phases including PCM to obtain desirable thermal properties for building and infrastructure applications. Simulations are carried out on realistic three-dimensional microstructures generated using pore structure information. An inverse analysis procedure is used to extract the intrinsic thermal properties of those microstructural components for which data is not available. The homogenized heat flux is predicted for an imposed temperature gradient from which the effective composite thermal conductivity is computed. The simulated effective composite thermal conductivities are found to correlate very well with experimental measurements for a family of LWA-PCM composites considered in the paper. Comparisons with commonly used analytical homogenization models show that the microstructure-guided simulation approach provides superior results for composites exhibiting large property contrast between phases. By linking the microstructure and thermal properties of hierarchical materials, an efficient framework is available for optimizing the material design to improve thermal efficiency of a wide variety of heterogeneous materials.
AB - This paper presents a microstructure-guided numerical homogenization technique to predict the effective thermal conductivity of a hierarchical cement-based material containing phase change material (PCM)-impregnated lightweight aggregates (LWA). Porous inclusions such as LWAs embedded in a cementitious matrix are filled with multiple fluid phases including PCM to obtain desirable thermal properties for building and infrastructure applications. Simulations are carried out on realistic three-dimensional microstructures generated using pore structure information. An inverse analysis procedure is used to extract the intrinsic thermal properties of those microstructural components for which data is not available. The homogenized heat flux is predicted for an imposed temperature gradient from which the effective composite thermal conductivity is computed. The simulated effective composite thermal conductivities are found to correlate very well with experimental measurements for a family of LWA-PCM composites considered in the paper. Comparisons with commonly used analytical homogenization models show that the microstructure-guided simulation approach provides superior results for composites exhibiting large property contrast between phases. By linking the microstructure and thermal properties of hierarchical materials, an efficient framework is available for optimizing the material design to improve thermal efficiency of a wide variety of heterogeneous materials.
KW - Finite element
KW - Lightweight aggregate
KW - Microstructure
KW - Numerical homogenization
KW - Phase change materials (PCMs)
KW - Thermal conductivity
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U2 - 10.1016/j.cemconcomp.2017.12.003
DO - 10.1016/j.cemconcomp.2017.12.003
M3 - Article
VL - 87
SP - 20
EP - 28
JO - Cement and Concrete Composites
JF - Cement and Concrete Composites
SN - 0958-9465
ER -