A phase change material selection using the interval-valued target-based BWM-CoCoMULTIMOORA approach: A case-study on interior building applications

Abstract

The move towards sustainable development and energy efficient solutions in the built environment has led to develop innovative solutions, particularly in the area of indoor environmental comfort in buildings. Phase change materials (PCMs) are a potential approach to target building energy use reduction. PCMs are smart materials that have been commercialized and used in buildings for effective regulation of surface and indoor air temperature fluctuations and peak energy reductions. Appropriate PCM selection is the critical step in PCM system design that determines the full effectiveness and applicability of PCM integrated building applications. Optimal selection of PCMs can be effectively executed with the support of multiple attribute decision making (MADM) approaches. Although, the traditional MADM methods have usually focused on beneficial and non-beneficial attributes, in real-world and practical problems, decision-makers tend to determine the rank of an optimal alternative based on the target values of their attributes. In response to the knowledge gap of an existing practical and functional PCM selection solution, this study proposed a hybrid and novel target-based MADM approach that combines the best-worst method (BWM) with COmbined COmpromise SOlution (CoCoSo) and multi-objective optimization of ratio analysis plus the full multiplicative form (MULTIMOORA) with an interval-valued structure called the IV-T-BWM-CoCoMULTIMOORA approach. A case study is examined to select the optimal PCM for interior building surface applications based on a case-specific construction project in Toronto, Canada. Two separate scenarios are considered, one based on thermophysical specifications and one based on managerial preferences. The connection between both technical and managerial criteria was demonstrated to clearly affect the decision-making process to take into account both thermophysical properties of PCM alternatives in the context of risk factors and design considerations. Nevertheless, the influence of the technical parameters was shown to be dominant in the final selection of the best case scenario.