Porous materials in building energy technologies—a review of the applications, modelling and experiments

Rashidi, S., Esfahani, J. A. and Karimi, N. (2018) Porous materials in building energy technologies—a review of the applications, modelling and experiments. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 91, pp. 229-247. (doi: 10.1016/j.rser.2018.03.092)

Abstract

Improving energy efficiency in buildings is central to achieving the goals set by Paris agreement in 2015, as it reduces the energy consumption and consequently the emission of greenhouse gases without jeopardising human comfort. The literature includes a large number of articles on energy performance of the residential and commercial buildings. Many researchers have examined porous materials as affordable and promising means of improving the energy efficiency of buildings. Further, some of the natural media involved in building energy technologies are porous. However, currently, there is no review article exclusively focused on the porous media pertinent to the building energy technologies. Accordingly, this article performs a review of literature on the applications, modelling and experimental studies about the materials containing macro, micro, and nano-porous media and their advantages and limitations in different building energy technologies. These include roof cooling, ground-source heat pumps and heat exchangers, insulations, and thermal energy storage systems. The progress made and the remaining challenges in each technology are discussed and some conclusions and suggestions are made for the future research.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Karimi, Dr Nader
• Authors: Rashidi, S., Esfahani, J. A., and Karimi, N.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering > Systems Power and Energy
• Journal Name: Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews
• Publisher: Elsevier
• ISSN: 1364-0321
• ISSN (Online): 1879-0690
• Published Online: 10 April 2018
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2018 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 91: 229-247
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License

Project Code	Award No	Project Name	Principal Investigator	Funder's Name	Funder Ref	Lead Dept
70976	1	Thermally Driven Heat Pump Based on an Integrated Thermodynamic Cycle for Low Carbon Domestic Heating (Therma-Pump)	Zhibin Yu	Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)	EP/N020472/1	ENG - ENGINEERING SYSTEMS POWER & ENERGY