Passive Study of Energy Efficiency of a Building with PCM on the Roof during Summer in Casablanca

Energy efficiency in buildings is today a prime objective for energy policy at national and international levels. Because the residential and commercial energy consumption has steadily increased reaching figures between 20% and 40%. The use of thermal insulation of the building envelope is one of the most currently requested solutions to reduce this energy consumption. Phase Change Materials (PCM) have received increased attention due to their ability to store large amounts of thermal energy within narrow temperature ranges. This property makes them ideal for storage of passive heat in the building envelopes. An experimental study was conducted to analyze the influence of PCM in the construction of exterior walls. Two test cells are constructed in the Faculty of Science Ain Chock, Casablanca. One is equipped with a 0.56 cm layer of PCM on its roof while the second is a reference cell without PCM. The results presented for the period from 8th to 10th July 2014 show that the integration of PCM layer reduces the amplitude of instantaneous heat flux through the horizontal wall. The indoor and the internal vertical wall temperatures, in the case of the cell with PCM, are relatively decreased compared to those of the reference one. For example, the maximum deviation between the indoor temperatures of the cubicles is not more than 1.5℃ while the one on the west faces reaches 3℃ by mid day. Also the inclusion of a layer of PCM shifts the time of peak load and discharge.

Temperature-dependent barrier height inhomogeneities in PTB7:PC71BM-based organic solar cells

We report on the temperature-dependent Schottky barrier in organic solar cells based on PTB7:PC71BM.The ideality factor is found to increase with temperature decreasing,which is explained by a model in which the solar cell is taken as Schottky barrier diode.Accordingly,the dark current in the device originates from the thermally emitted electrons across the Schottky barrier.The fittings obtained with the thermal emission theory are systematically studied at different temperatures.It is concluded that the blend/Ca/Al interface presents great inhomogeneity,which can be described by 2 sets of Gaussian distributions with large zero bias standard deviations.With the decrease of temperature,electrons favor going across the Schottky barrier patches with lower barrier height and as a consequence the ideally factor significantly increases at low temperature.

Experimental Study of Heat Transfer in a Real Scale Building Incorporating PCM in the Air Layer of the Vertical Walls

The purpose of this paper is to study the energy efficiency of a local living space exposed to solar radiation in the subtropical climate of Casablanca. The study was mainly focused on the contribution of a phase change material (PCM), inserted into a 7-cm thick air layer of a double brick wall, in two different locations. We note that the experimental study was conducted using two real-scale test cavities, located in the Faculty of Science Ain Chock-Casablanca. Two PCM mounting methods were used for the south and west walls, in order to test its energy efficiency as a storage and retrieval means of the solar flux coming from the outside. In the case of the southern wall, the PCM is put directly on the internal side of the outside part of the double wall (Case 1). For the west wall, the PCM is placed 1.2 cm away from the internal side of the outer part of the double wall (Case 2). The first result shows that the PCM placed to the wall allows storing the solar heat during the day and releasing it to the outside of the building at night. While in the second case, the PCM keeps the heat stored day and night.

Comparative Study of the Birefringence in Photonic Crystal Fiber Lasers

In this paper, we study the birefringence in photonic crystal fiber lasers PCFs and in conventional fiber lasers in the bi-directional pump scheme in the linear cavity laser. We show that the value of birefringence in photonic crystal fibers is smaller than that of conventional fiber lasers [1].

Large magnetocaloric effect in Er_(2)O_(3) compounds at cryogenic temperature

We investigated the magnetocaloric effect in commercial Er_(2)O_(3) powders which presents almost no hysteresis losses at low temperature.At a magnetic field change of 5 T,it displays large magnetic entropy change(-ΔSM)max of 15.02 J/(kg·K)and a refrigerant capacity(RC)of 311 J/K at Neel temperature TN=3.32 K.The magnetic transition was found to be of a second-order.The maximum values of adiabatic temperature change(ΔTad)max reach 0.70 K for a magnetic field change of 1 T.The large value,of(-ASM)max as well as no hysteresis loss,makes Er_(2)O_(3) a promising material as a magnetic refrigerant at low temperature.

Influence of bismuth on magnetism and magnetocaloric properties of LaFe_(11.6)Si_(1.4) intermetallic compound

Crystal structure, magnetic properties and magnetocaloric effects （MCE） of La1-xBixFe1 1.4Si1.6 （x=0.0 and 0.1） compounds were investigated by X-ray diffraction and magnetization measurements. The La1-xBixFe11.4Si1.6 compounds presented a cubic NaZnx3 type structure. First, the magnetization behavior and the magnetic transition were analyzed in terms of Landau theory. Then, Bi substitution for La in La1-xBixFe11.4Si1.6 compounds led to a decrease in magnetic entropy change （-△SM^max） but an increase in Curie temperature （Tc） significantly. The significant increase of Tc by Bi substitution from 202.5 to 256 K for x=0.0 and x=0.1 respectively was attributed to an increase in the Fe-Fe exchange interactions. Moreover, magnetocaloric effect was calculated in terms of isothermal magnetic entropy change. The maximum values of （-△SM^max ） of La1-xBixFe11.4Si1.6 for x=-0.0 and 0.1 compounds were found to be, respectively, 22.56 and 4.36 J/（kg.K） under an applied magnetic field change of 5 T. For the same applied magnetic field （μ0H=5 T）, the relative cooling power （RCP） values were found to vary between 487 and 296 J/kg.