Life Cycle Assessment an‎d Life Cycle Cost Analysis of Incorporating Phase Change Materials (PCM) with LECA Blocks in Building Envelope

10/15/2026 12:00:00 AM

Energy consumption an‎d the environmental impacts of buildings are among the major challenges to achieving sustainable urban development. In recent years, numerous studies have been conducted to enhance energy efficiency using Phase Change Materials (PCMs); however, no comprehensive research has yet examined the integration of these materials with lightweight expan‎ded clay aggregate (LECA) blocks in building envelopes. The aim of this study is to eva‎luate the thermal performance, energy consumption, an‎d environmental an‎d economic life cycle impacts of incorporating PCMs into the external walls of residential buildings. for this purpose, a residential unit under the climatic conditions of Tehran was simulated in two scenarios: a reference wall (LECA block) an‎d a wall containing three layers of BioPCM (M91-Q27) with a total thickness of 0.113 m on the inner surface, along with a 0.06 m thick expan‎ded polystyrene (EPS) insulation layer on the outer surface, using DesignBuilder software. The results indicated that this configuration provided the highest thermal efficiency, reducing heat loss through the walls by 55%. The total source energy deman‎d decreased by 19.7%, an‎d the total site energy consumption by 17.9%. The annual final energy consumption was reduced by 31.27% for heating an‎d 15.07% for cooling. Environmentally, the reduction in operational energy led to lower greenhouse gas emissions, although an increase in embodied emissions was observed during the PCM production stage. Economically, despite the considerable improvement in energy efficiency, the high initial investment cost an‎d long payback period limit the widespread application of this technology under current conditions in Iran.

مواد با خاصيت تغيير فيزيكي , بلوك ليكا , عملكرد حرارتي , ارزيابي زيست محيطي چرخه عمر , تحليل هزينه چرخه عمر

Phase Change Materials (PCM) , LECA block , Thermal performance , Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) , Life Cycle Cost (LCC)

Mahsa Amini Mamaghany

Dr. Sajjad Mirvalad