Showing 146 results for Author: Som S. Shrestha
Aug, 2026
Journal
Buildings consume large amounts of energy for heating and cooling, while peak electricity demand places significant stress on the power grid. This paper presents a reduced-order co-simulation framework and load-oriented supervisory control strategy for a geothermal-integrated thermally anisotropic building envelope with a ground loop (TABE+GL). In TABE+GL, a hydronic loop…
Aug, 2026
Journal
This study investigates the thermal performance of a thermally activated precast concrete sandwich wall (TA-PCSW) for low-temperature radiative heating and cooling in commercial buildings. A full-scale TA-PCSW panel was fabricated and tested using a rotatable guarded hot box to quantify effective thermal resistance (R-value) and thermal energy storage behavior under contro…
Jul, 2026
Journal
Phase change materials (PCMs) can reduce building peak loads and enable demand-responsive thermal energy storage (TES), but their deployment depends on reliable measurement and interpretation of thermal properties across laboratory, intermediate, and application scales. This review systematically examines characterization methods, testing protocols, and recent advances for…
Apr, 2026
Journal
Phase change materials (PCMs) store and release large amounts of thermal energy because of their high latent energy storage capacity. However, long-term cyclic stability and subcooling issues are two of the major challenges for their use in building thermal energy storage (TES) applications. In this study, we conducted a comprehensive multiscale characterization of two com…
Apr, 2026
Conference Paper
Thermal insulation materials with ultra-low effective thermal conductivity are crucial for a multitude of applications. Over the years, a significant amount of experimental work has been dedicated to creating new insulation materials with low thermal conductivity. Similarly, substantial efforts have been made to enhance the theoretical understanding of thermal transport me…
Mar, 2026
Conference Paper
Mar, 2026
Conference Paper
In the United States, the building sector accounts for 40% of all energy use, and buildings are responsible for more than two-thirds of electricity consumption. Buildings remain the major driver of energy-related carbon emissions, and such emissions are projected to increase in the years ahead because of urbanization and population growth. To accomplish the low carbon ener…
Mar, 2026
Conference Paper
The Thermally Anisotropic Building Envelope (TABE) is an active building envelope system that can exchange thermal energy with a storage medium to reduce the building’s energy demand. TABE redirects thermal energy along thin conductive layers in the building envelope to hydronic loops that are connected to thermal energy storage (TES), where it will be available to offset…
Mar, 2026
Conference Paper
Disadvantaged communities often face a disproportionate energy burden because they need to allocate a higher percentage of their income to energy costs. More importantly, climate change-induced extreme weather events, such as heat waves and severe cold snaps, exacerbate these communities’ energy burdens. As a result, low- and medium-income communities are more likely to ex…
Mar, 2026
Conference Paper
Buildings contribute to nearly 40% of the U.S. national energy consumption and a significant portion of CO2 emissions. More importantly, disadvantaged communities are disproportionately affected by energy burden and thermal discomfort in their homes. This paper will discuss two novel DOE's BTO supported thermal energy storage (TES) integrated dynamic building envelope tech…