Thermal Performance Through the Use of Radiant Barrier and Phase Change Material in Concrete Flat Roofs

Building sectors are large consumers of energy worldwide, responsible for approximately 40% of the world's primary energy consumption. This paper analyzes the thermal performance of two passive roof construction technologies as a means of improving the indoor thermal conditions under summer conditions. Three identical Test Cell Structures (TCS) were constructed. All the TCSs were calibrated and two types of roofing technologies, Radiant Barrier (RB) and Phase Change Material (PCM) were individually applied to a TCS and their performance in terms of indoor air temperature reduction was compared. A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was calculated for the study. The experimental results show that the thermal performance of RB obtained the best thermal improvement. TCS equipped with RB registered indoor air temperature 1.6 °C (2.9 °F) lower than the control test structure.