Effects of diagonal bracing on thermal insulation of wood-frame walls

Abstract

The influence of various diagonal-bracings arrangements on the heat transfer coefficient of wooden walls was studied with the goal of improving the thermal insulation performance of the walls. Through the reliability verification of the theoretical value of the heat transfer coefficient, this study found that a larger proportion of wood frame area resulted in larger theoretical and test values for the heat transfer coefficient. The heat transfer coefficient of the wall with expanded polystyrene foam sheet (EPS) was 5.90% to 6.10% higher than that with extruded polystyrene foam sheet (XPS), and the tested value was 4.75% to 8.60% higher. The maximum value of the average heat transfer coefficient of 12 diagonal-braced walls was 0.366 W·m-2·K-1, which met the thermal level of the severe cold area. The test value of the heat transfer coefficient was larger than the theoretically calculated value, and the linear correlation was up to 0.978.