It is not directly incorporated into OpenStudio, but we model it in OpenStudio via an EnergyPlus measure that will add the PCM properties to a specifically named material (that is included in the intended constructions). This involves setting up an IDF file with all of the necessary MaterialProperty:PhaseChange objects defined that gets added to the translated OSM and has naming conventions that match what you set up in the associated materials in OpenStudio.
EnergyPlus documentation is here.
It is essential to pay attention to the note about setting HeatBalanceAlgorithm to ConductionFiniteDifference and having a larger (meaning shorter) timestep then you probably use normally. Both of those settings can be accessed through OpenStudio.
@Craig Simmons Thanks for sharing, I was able to look into the energy plus example idf file for PCM Materials , The script that you are talking is it available on BCL library?
There is an "inject IDF" measure that is available on the BCL and can be used for this. Essentially you create an IDF that can serve as a library of MaterialProperty:PhaseChange objects. Then in the OSM model you place the materials (named exactly as they appear in the IDF) into appropriate places in constructions. Then adding the IDF will automatically apply the PCM properties. You can even use BCL measures to change constructions to evaluate different PCMs against each other. We were able to get vendor specific data but it has been a couple years so it's probably already outdated.
I wrote a simple measure called Envelope Material Property Phase Change that could be useful. My results did not show significant energy savings using the EnergyPlus example file data. I tried to get manufacturer data from BioPCM, but was unsuccessful.
Asked: 2022-05-10 17:28:05 -0500
Seen: 1,515 times
Last updated: May 16 '22
