A concept for a potential metric to characterise the dynamic thermal performance of walls

A novel concept for characterising the dynamic thermal response of walling systems has been developed to assist with the evaluation of the thermal performance of walling systems and possibly housing. This takes into account the mechanisms involved between various components of a wall as well as the complete building envelope, which jointly respond to external environmental variations. The concept has been validated through analysis of the performance of various housing systems at the University of Newcastle, Australia and the detailed study of building response to changing environmental conditions. Current design practice is to characterise the potential thermal performance of a building interior by placing emphasis on the thermal resistances (R-values) of the various building elements. While the R-value is an important thermal property of a building material, its statically determined nature is incapable to adequately the dynamic thermal response of a wall (or building interior) to external thermal changes. The concept for a comprehensive new metric for dynamic performance which considers the ordered combination of the insulation and thermal mass properties of the elemental layers within the particular wall type(s) is presented here and can be applied to walls and/or building envelopes.

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