Experimental and numerical studies on thermal performance of an office cubicle having gypsum boards coated with PCM-enhanced spackling

PCM enhanced wallboards on internal surfaces of building spaces is an attractive solution for improvement of thermal performance in buildings. This work deals with using a novel spackling compound as a primer coating material, from Gyproc Saint-Gobain, Sweden AB, in the inner walls of building envelopes for passive cooling and thermal comfort management. The spackling compound contains fillers, rheological additives and binding agents together with micro-encapsulated PCM. Experimental measurements and numerical simulations are performed for an office cubicle having 14 m2 floor area with and without PCM enhanced spackling material. PCM enhanced spackling has been applied on the internal walls and ceiling surface. The results show that a significant cooling effect could be achieved when covering walls and ceiling with PCM enhanced spackling directly exposed to the occupied zone. Furthermore, a parametric study shows that the PCM’s thickness, and the nighttime ventilation airflow rate and supply air temperature have considerable impact on the cooling performance.