Insulation performance improvement for drywall using highly insulated steel studs with slots

Abstract

Drywall systems are a highly constructible technology with short construction times that allow the recycling and reuse of materials. However, steel studs used to anchor the insulation can cause thermal bridging owing to their high thermal conductivity, which can reduce the insulation performance and thermal comfort of occupants. This study proposes a new design method for drywall systems that can overcome the shortcomings and contribute to building energy conservation. Studs with slots applied in the web area are proposed, and the thermal performance and optimal slot size were determined by thermal analysis simulations. Through sensitivity and regression analysis, a design method for drywall was proposed. The developed studs showed an increase in insulation performance of approximately 22.1 % compared with conventional studs. The error rate between the simulation results and the regression model was 0.4 %. An experiment was conducted to verify the insulation performance of the studs. The results of this study can contribute to expanding the application of drywall technology in the building field by solving the problem of thermal bridging and providing a unique perspective on the drywall.