Behavior of cementitious mortars with direct incorporation of non-encapsulated phase change material after severe temperature exposure

Abstract

Nowadays, the study of construction solutions capable of withstanding severe conditions, such as temperature exposure, is paramount. Considering the thermal storage capabilities of phase change materials (PCM), this work features the study of four different compositions based on cement and fly ash, with which different contents of non-encapsulated PCM (0%, 5%, 10% and 20%) were combined by direct incorporation. These were tested under low and high temperatures (-18ºC, 20ºC, 200ºC, 400ºC and 600ºC), through freeze-thaw as well as compressive and flexural tests. Results show that the incorporation of non-encapsulated PCM leads to an improvement regarding freeze-thaw conditions, while maintaining an identical behavior to the reference mortars when subjected to high temperatures.