The recently formed Built Environment Research Institute with 20 academic staff, 10 associated academic staff, and 25-30 full time contract researchers funded from external research grant awards (which are on an average annual basis in excess of Stg�1 million) provides an excellent environment for undertaking nationally and internationally important built environment research. Sixty five FTE PhD students are enrolled to undertake research across a wide spectrum of areas that range from fire engineering research to property and planning.
The major research groups within the Research Institute are:
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Fire Safety Engineering Research and Technology Centre (FireSERT)
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Centre for Sustainable Technologies (CST)
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Research on Property and Planning Centre (RPP)
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Transport and Road Assessment Centre (TRAC).
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Northern Ireland Centre for Energy Research and Technology (NICERT).
Characterisation of Integrated Collector Storage Solar Thermal Systems filled with a 65�C phase change material slurry.
A recently completed European Union funded project, PAMELA, Phase Change Materials and their commercial applications coordinated by the Centre for Sustainable Technologies, looked at the performance characteristics of micro encapsulated phase change materials produced by BASF. The micro capsules, when suspended in a suitable carrier fluid, produce a slurry with improved energy storage/carrying capacity that can be pumped in pipe work systems. The temperature range studied in the project was from 4�C to 65�C. Potential applications investigated at the University of Ulster included the use of 65�C phase change slurries to replace water in a range of integrated collector storage solar thermal collector systems and an 18�C phase change material slurry used to replace water in a chilled ceiling application.
Other recent work in this area includes doctoral studies that looked at the use of phase change materials to minimise the temperature rise of photovoltaic cells and the potential of using phase change materials for energy storage at temperatures of over 100�C. Both of these studies examine the heat transfer to the PCM which is a critical factor in determining system charging time.
Contact: Professor Philip Eames, School of the Built Environment,
University of Ulster, Newtownabbey,
Co Antrim BT37 0QB;
Tel: 028 90 368244; Fax: 028 90 368239; E-mail
[email protected]
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