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Energy Procedia 78 (2015) 459 464

6th International Building Physics Conference, IBPC 2015

Applications of Active Hollow Core Slabs and Insulated

Concrete Foam Walls as Thermal Storage in Cold Climate
Residential Buildings
Navid Ekramia*, Raghad S. Kamela, Anais Garatb, Afarin Amirirada, Alan S. Funga
a
Ryerson University, 350 Victoria Street, Toronto, Ontario, M5B 2K3, Canada
b
Institut Catholique des Arts et Mtiers, 6 Rue Auber,59800 Lille, France

Abstract

A test facility is designed and is under construction to experimentally verify the effect of thermal energy storage
systems in overall performance of a coupled Building Integrated PhotoVoltaic / Thermal (BIPV/T) and Air Source
Heat Pump (ASHP). This study shows how the loads for the test facility were adjusted by a regular size single
family residential building. Moreover, the article explains different unique options of storing thermal energy in the
test facility using the thermal mass of the building itself. Numerical models of Insulated Concrete Form (ICF) wall
and Ventilated Concrete Slab (VCS) were developed using SolidWorks software Flow Simulation module and
ANSYS Fluent software.
2015 TheAuthors.
2015 The Authors.Published
Publishedbyby Elsevier
Elsevier Ltd.Ltd.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
Peer-review under responsibility of the CENTRO CONGRESSI INTERNAZIONALE SRL.
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the CENTRO CONGRESSI INTERNAZIONALE SRL
Keywords: Ventilated Concrete Slab (VCS); Thermal Energy Storage (TES); Insulated Concrete Form (ICF)

1. Introduction

Despite the fact that solar energy is freely available source of thermal and electrical energy in buildings, mismatch
between supply and demand periods is the major obstacle of maximizing solar utilization in buildings. The peak
demand of thermal energy often happens at nights or early mornings in winter season when the sun is not available,

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +1-416-979-5000 Ext. 7833

E-mail address: navid.ekrami@ryerson.ca

1876-6102 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the CENTRO CONGRESSI INTERNAZIONALE SRL
doi:10.1016/j.egypro.2015.11.698
460 Navid Ekrami et al. / Energy Procedia 78 (2015) 459 464

while the maximum solar irradiation occurs during the day in summer when the heating is not required. Therefore,
storing the energy during the day and releasing it upon demand would be a wiser choice considering that a well-
designed sustainable building must also satisfy the thermal comfort of occupants. On the other hand, the thermal
efficiency values of Photovoltaic/Thermal (PVT) systems lie commonly within the range of 30-40% while the
electrical efficiency values range is 10-20% [1, 2]. In other words, the amount of thermal energy production from a
PVT system is up to four times of electrical power generation [3] and converting solar irradiation to thermal energy
instead of electricity may become more economically viable.
The difference between supply and demand of solar generated thermal energy can be compensated by a short
term thermal energy storage (TES) system such as buildings faade / thermal mass [4]. On the other hand, the
collected thermal energy by a solar system may not be warm enough for direct heating purposes in the winter.
However, it could be a useful source for an Air Source Heat Pump (ASHP) [5, 6]. Coupling the TES to the space
heating operator, potentially can enhance the overall performance of the buildings integrated system. In an integrated
system, replacing the outdoor air by the solar heated air as an inlet to the ASHP would increase the Coefficient of
Performance (COP) of the heat pump. It means TES improves the thermal performance of the system and consequently
electrical consumption of the heat pump will decrease. As a result, the combined heating system would operate more
economically [3]. In general, thermal storage is preferred to be included in the solar assisted heat pump system to
avoid the harm effect of non-constant solar radiation intensity [7, 8]. Hence, the COP of the heat pump is higher and
electricity saving is enhanced when Thermal Energy Storage (TES) unit is linked to the solar air heater-heat pump
system. Additionally, TES could decrease the temperature fluctuation in the building.
Building integrated thermal energy storage (BITES) systems is a potential efficient solution to manage the energy
consumption in buildings and requires to be investigated in more details. Effectiveness of BITES in different areas
are highly recommended in the literature. Rad et al. [9] and Wang et al. [10] have shown that solar thermal energy
storage in the ground could reduce the length of ground heat exchanger by 15%. Chen et al. [11] designed and modeled
a building integrated photovoltaic/thermal (BIPV/T) system in a near zero energy building in cold climate of Canada.
Accordingly, they have studied the effect of integrating a ventilated concrete slab (VCS) with BIPV/T system as an
active TES system. Since most of the times temperature output from the BIPV/T is not high enough to be fed into the
VCS, it is recommended to consider and include an air source heat pump in the integrated system. Moreover, Kamel
and Fung [12] studied a BIPV/T system integrated with air source heat pump. It has been shown that the combined
system will enhance the performance of the overall system and it is recommended that an appropriate BITES system
will increase the overall efficiency of the entire integrated system further [12]. Accordingly, Ekrami et al, [13] showed
the potential effectiveness of a concrete based BITES.

2. Motivation

There is an interest in using the building's concrete slab as TES. Since concrete slab is common in the basement or
garage of North American houses, designing and utilizing a Ventilated Concrete Slab (VCS) with proper control
strategy is viable and does not increase the construction costs [14]. Also, it can improve the thermal performance of
the house without employing water or other thermal storage systems/materials [9, 10]. The energy collected by the
solar collector can be stored in the TES when space heating is not required. The cold outdoor air during the night can
be tempered by the TES and enhance the ASHP performance [12].
Additionally, Insulated Concrete Form (ICF) walls are becoming more popular in low rise and high performance
residential construction industry because of their strength and energy efficiency. The ICF wall is basically made with
two Expanded PolyStyrene (EPS) side panels and concrete in between. The R value of the EPS panels can be as high
as 30 ft2.F.h/Btu (5.3 K.m2/W) which makes ICF a perfect insulated wall for buildings [15]. Meanwhile, the concrete
inside the ICF can be used as thermal storage. The wall can be constructed with embedded pipes inside the concrete
for the purpose of thermally charging and discharging it with preheated water. However, the thermal behaviour of the
slab and ICF walls in heating applications have to be well understood and quantified in order to realize successful
designs and operations in terms of efficiency and cost.

3. Test Facility

To serve above mentioned purposes and investigate the effect of a BITES on the overall performance of the
integrated system, a full scale (30ft 25ft) test facility, equipped with the combined VCS, multiple heat pump systems,
 Navid Ekrami et al. / Energy Procedia 78 (2015) 459 464 461

and BIPV/T systems, is designed and currently under construction at Toronto and Region Conservation Authority
(TRCA) Kortright Centre in Vaughan, Ontario, Canada. The Air Source Heat Pump (ASHP) is integrated with roof
based BIPV/T panels to improve the performance of the system [15]. The ASHP can produce hot air/water. All ICF
walls and the concrete floor are designed to be used as Building Integrated Thermal Energy Storage (BITES). Stored
thermal energy can be used later for space heating and/or domestic hot water use. This configuration is expected to
enhance the overall performance of the integrated system by implementing the TES.
Considering the geometry and material of the test facility, a
detailed model of the building was developed in TRNSYS
software. The model provides the hourly heating and cooling
demand of the building for a whole year. Maximum calculated
thermal demand of the test facility based on the simulated model
is 3.77 kW. Figure 1 illustrates the heating/cooling demand of
the test facility for every hour in 365 days using Toronto weather
library data. Since the size of the test facility is smaller than a
single family house, the maximum thermal demand of the
building is also relatively lower than a residential house. The
objective of this research is to test and validate the feasibility of
mechanical systems such as heat pumps and thermal energy
storages under real life conditions which fits a regular size
building. Therefore, all mechanical systems were
designed/sized to produce enough thermal energy for House
Figure 1 - Hourly Heating / Cooling Demand of the Test Facility
A of Archetype Sustainable Houses (ASH) in TRCA. House A
is a semidetached two story building, which is built to test
different sustainable technologies for residential housing market [16, 17]. House A represent a regular single family
building in Canada. Hence, the house model was developed in TRNSYS by Safa et al. [18] and the result was used
for the design of the test facilitys mechanical systems. The
hourly demand of the House A in Toronto weather is illustrated
in Figure 2.
Comparing the loads of the test facility and House A, shows
a higher cooling demand (in summer time) for the test facility.
It is because of large openings/windows on south, east, and west
side of the building resulting in high solar gain and consequently
higher cooling demand. Also, for the same reason the thermal
demand of the house in winter decreases during sunny hours.
Figure 3 is generated in order to show the trend of thermal
demand for both test facility and House A based on outdoor
temperature. As expected, thermal demands are higher when the
outdoor temperature is lower but the demands for test facility is
more scattered due to high solar radiation gain. The simulated
thermal load of buildings found to be linear relative to the Figure 2 - Hourly Heating / Cooling Demand of the House A
outdoor temperature and defined as follows:
( (1)

  (2)
The mechanical systems are designed based on House A thermal demand. However, they will be installed in the
test facility. Therefore, the correlation between two buildings loads becomes important, which is calculated as
follows:

 (  (3)
462 Navid Ekrami et al. / Energy Procedia 78 (2015) 459 464

4. Integrated Thermal Energy Storage

Systems

Designing an integrated thermal energy

storage system requires a detail understanding
of all other parts of the system. Each part plays
a key role in overall performance of the coupled
system. Also, they have to be connected in a
way that not to forfeit the living space of the
building and also not to sacrifice comfort of the
occupants. In that note, the entire building has
to be design as multiple efficient thermal Figure 3 Thermal Demand of both Buildings versus Outdoor Temperature
storage systems along with the heat pumps and
BIPV/T systems. The integrated system is designed to store energy inside the test facility as much as possible from
the sun during the day. Hence, there are three major parts included in the building as thermal energy storage which
are explained in the following sections.

4.1. Ventilated Sand / Gravel Bed

There are two separate zones/rooms and a mechanical room in the test facility. The foundation of the building is
considered to be deeper than regular residential houses to facilitate enough thermal mass for the sand and gravel
thermal storage systems. As illustrated in Figure 4, a four feet deep fine sand bed (zone 1) is considered to be ventilated
by air pipes. The sand bed is located beneath a rigid insulation layer which separates the sand bed from concrete slab.
Diameter of embedded pipes are designed to be 4 inches
each and they are connected to a 16 inches manifold to
distribute the air evenly between the pipes. Heated air is
supplied by the BIPV/T system and is fed to the sand bed.
Thermal energy will be transferred and stored into the sand
during the sunny hours and can be extracted for later time
when there is a demand. The stored thermal energy can be
used to preheat the inlet air to the heat pump system during
cold nights. This process will enhance the coefficient of
performance (COP) of the heat pump. Then the heat pump
can be used for space heating and/or producing domestic hot
water.
Furthermore, the foundation of zone 2 is designed for
another type of air based thermal storage. A gravel bed or Figure 4 - Ventilated Sand Bed
recycled concrete aggregate bed is used instead of fine sand.
Since the air can passes through the voids of gravel/aggregate, there is no need for piping system. However, in order
to distribute air evenly inside the bed a header/manifold is used for each of the inlet and outlet. This system simplifies
the construction by eliminating embedded pipes and reduces the capital cost as well. Having these two systems side
by side allows a detail comprehensive comparative test under equal condition.
4.2. Ventilated Concrete Slab (VCS)
In addition to the sand bed and gravel bed storages, the slab of each zone will also be used as thermal storage.
Above the rigid insulation panel that separates the foundation from the slab, there is a layer of concrete with 4 inches
thickness. A corrugated steel deck will be placed on top of this concrete layer during the construction. Then another
concrete layer will be poured on top of the steel deck. The voids between bottom layer concrete and the corrugated
steel can work as an air channel. Figure 5, shows a schematic of the concrete slab. Heated air from BIPV/T+ASHP
 Navid Ekrami et al. / Energy Procedia 78 (2015) 459 464 463

system can alternatively pass through the air channels and warm up the concrete. In other words, the concrete slab as
a thermal storage can be charged by the air during the day and discharged at night. A portion of the stored thermal
energy also will be transferred to the room as well.
However, in this study the goal is to store the
maximum thermal energy and use it to preheat the
heat pump source air rather than releasing it to the
room. The floor is also equipped with in-
floor/radiant heating system. This system will use
hot water for space heating and is not a storage
system.
A simplified 3D model of the ventilated concrete
slab was simulated in ANSYS Fluent program to
study the heat transfer phenomena between air and Figure 5 -Ventilated Concrete Slab
concrete. This model helps designers to fully
understand the effects and relationships between different variables, such as inlet temperature, inlet velocity, heat
transfer rate inside the channel, percentage of wasted thermal energy, etc. A dense concrete with density of 2100
kg/m3, specific heat of 840 j/(kg*K), and thermal conductivity of 1.4 W/(m*K) was selected for the simulation.
In order to find the optimal heat transfer rate inside the channels variety of air velocities were numerically tested.
Also the percentage of missed/rejected thermal
energy for each case was calculated. A set of Table 1 - Sample results of Outlet Air Temperature with
Different Inlet Temperature
sample air outlet temperatures for few velocities is
shown in Table 1. As expected, for low air
velocities outlet temperature drops more than
higher air velocities. This is because of higher
residence time of the fluid in contact with the solid.
It was observed that the overall heat transfer rate
between air and concrete is higher when the
velocity is higher. However, higher heat transfer
rate does not necessary mean a better configuration
since the ratio of heat transfer between air and concrete and total input heat transfer rate (the rate that thermal energy
is added to the system by heated air) is the key variable. Also the total amount of transferred thermal energy is another
important item in the design. The optimum air velocity depends on all other components of the integrated system as
well such as number of PV/T panels, size of the heat pump, floor area, and concrete thickness.

4.3. Insulated Concrete Form (ICF) Wall

Flow Simulation module of Solidworks program was used to investigate the heat transfer process of the embedded
hot water pipes inside the ICF wall. A simplified three dimensional model of the ICF wall with a unit length (1 m) of
PVC pipe was created. All pipes are parallel to
Table 2 - Sample Results of ICF Simulation
each other and located in a fixed distance of 20
inches apart. Insulations (EPS boards) were
assumed to be perfect. Various water temperatures
for inlet was numerically tested to address the
associated changes in the heat transfer rate and
temperature distribution in concrete. A sample set
of simulation results for three inlet temperatures is
presented in Table 2. Also rate of heat transfer for
different configurations were calculated. The heat
transfer rate in Table 2 is the rate of transferred
thermal energy between the hot water inside the embedded pipe and concrete. Preliminary thermal analysis of the ICF
walls shows that it could be a possible option to be integrated as a TES with BIPV/T+ASHP system.
464 Navid Ekrami et al. / Energy Procedia 78 (2015) 459 464

Remarks
Designing an integrated mechanical system for residential buildings requires a detail analysis of each part.
Coupling these technologies together, will enhance the overall performance of the system but also make the system
much more complicated than conventional systems. Numerical studies of the VCS and ICF walls shows that each of
these thermal storage systems could be a possible option to be integrated as a TES with BIPV/T+ASHP system.
However, the performance of these systems change if the defined initial conditions vary. The work presented in this
article describes a summary of the numerical analysis of TES systems and authors will provide further details in future
publications.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge the funding support for this project from the Natural Sciences and
Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada Discovery Grant (DG) and Smart Net-Zero Energy Building
Research Network (SNEBRN), Toronto Atmospheric Fund (TAF), MITACS/Acclerate Ontario, ASHRAE (GIA) and
Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS).
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