Thermal Insulation Composite Systems Research Articles

Thermal flow simulation for an energy garden building block

Since energy-efficient construction is of great importance, new construction and rehabilitation methods concerning this topic will always be researched. Among these are of course, methods that benefit from solar energy. As part of the BMWi project (Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy) “SWIVT” several options of the energy consumption of residential building blocks will be explored. One of approaches to reduce the energy consumption of the building block and additionally to achieve the energy gain through the solar radiation is an energy garden building block (glass porch). The impact of this energy garden is depicted by means of CFD-simulations (Computational Fluid Dynamics) and will be analyzed in the paper [1]. For this purpose, an energy garden was modeled using an architect drawing and simulated in both winter and summer load cases. For the winter case, the difference in energy consumption between the glass porch and the thermal insulation composite system (ETICS) will be discussed based on the results of the simulation. For the summer, the heat generated by solar radiation in the energy garden can be utilized with the help of a heat pump.

The Presence of Microscopic Algae and Funguses on the Facades of Buildings Equipped with Thermal Insulation Composite System (ETICS)

In the last decade we have been confronted with problems with biotic infestation of facades in engineering practice. The presence of microscopic algae and funguses on the facades of thermal insulation buildings distorts the appearance of buildings with green, brown or black coating. The reason for biotic pests beginning to appear on the facades of buildings very often is mainly the enlargement of thickness of thermal insulator ETICS. Thanks to the thermal insulation of facades with large thickness less thermal energy penetrates into the surface or plaster surface. The outer side is warmed up less and therefore it has lower outer surface temperature. Lower outer surface temperatures enable hypothermia of the surface of facades. The hypothermia of facades appears especially at night. The resulting aqueous film is the basic source of the necessary damp needed for the life of algae and funguses on facades of buildings. The presence of damp on the outer surfaces rises significantly depending on the better thermal insulation of walls.