Thermal insulating concrete wall panel design for sustainable built environment

Area of Science:

• Building Science
• Materials Science
• Thermal Engineering

Background:

• Air-conditioning systems are crucial for indoor thermal comfort but consume significant energy.
• Optimizing building envelopes is key to minimizing energy use in buildings dominated by envelope heat loads.
• Reducing unwanted heat gain and loss through building envelopes is essential for energy conservation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a novel concrete wall panel design incorporating a gypsum layer for enhanced thermal insulation.
• To evaluate the thermal performance of the proposed sandwich wall panel compared to conventional concrete panels.
• To assess the building-scale thermal effects of the new wall panel design using simulation.

Main Methods:

• Experimental monitoring of temperature variations in proposed and conventional wall panels under heat radiation.
• Construction of two three-story building models with different wall panel designs.
• Finite element method (FEM) simulations to evaluate temperature distribution in the building models.

Main Results:

• The proposed sandwich wall panel demonstrated improved thermal insulation compared to conventional concrete panels.
• Experimental results showed a significant retardation of heat transfer through the gypsum-enhanced wall panels.
• Finite element analysis confirmed the enhanced thermal performance at a building scale.

Conclusions:

• The integration of a gypsum layer within concrete wall panels significantly enhances thermal insulation performance.
• The novel sandwich wall panel design effectively retards heat transfer, contributing to energy savings in buildings.
• This design offers a viable solution for improving the energy efficiency of building envelopes.