FEM Analysis: A Review of the Most Common Thermal Bridges and Their Mitigation

Abstract

The necessity to improve the energy saving potential of buildings is now a duty. European and national policies are being implemented to address the important decisions being made on this subject. For these reasons, several studies focus on this relevant topic. This paper review not only focusses on it but studies it in-depth. A commercial 3D simulation software was used to design a building sited in Palermo estimating the thermal losses before and after external envelope insulation. In particular, all the thermal bridges (TBs) were analysed with the finite element method (FEM) and mitigated with rock wool insulation. The paper shows the linear thermal transmittance difference and heat flux loss before and after TB mitigation. The results confirm the importance of installing an external insulation layer in the old building envelope. The linear thermal transmittance of TBs and the associated heat flux loss often decrease by more than 50%.

Evaluation of Thermal Comfort with and without Fill Using a Thermal Environment Analysis Method for Building Envelopes with Thermally Complex Geometry: A Case Study in Hokkaido, Japan

“…The predicted mean vote (PMV) and predicted percentage of dissatisfied (PPD) were proposed by Fanger as comfort indicators [30]. Many studies related to PMV have been performed, including those on insulation performance [31][32][33][34].…”

Experimental and Numerical Assessment of the Thermal Bridging Effect in a Reinforced Concrete Corner Pillar

“…Some studies analysed thermal bridges in buildings with lightweight concrete or clay bricks and RC structures and demonstrated that in these buildings, the most important thermal bridges were due to balconies, pillars, and the contact between the wall and window [5,8,9]. Curto et al provided a detailed analysis of thermal bridges in a building with tuff blocks and RC structures and drew up a list of "good practice" precautions to insulate the building and reduce the transmission heat losses in the thermal bridges to 9% of the total [10]. Thermal breakers emerge as an interesting, innovative solution to correct the thermal bridge between exterior walls and concrete slabs, both with and without a balcony, leading to a reduction in the space heating demand ranging from 5% to 25% according to the climate and the building geometry [8,[11][12][13][14].…”

“…On the contrary, the finite element analysis has the advantage of avoiding any geometric limitations and allows for an accurate calculation of the depicted construction detail according to the Standard EN ISO 10211:2017, with an error below ±5% [3]; furthermore, it provides both the heat flux and the temperature distribution in the building component, thus giving information on the possible occurrence of mould growth [10]. The use of 2D finite element numerical tools to determine the linear thermal transmittance has recently become very common, even in non-scientific applications such as for the release of Energy Performance Certificates.…”

Digital Twin-Driven Fault Diagnosis for Autonomous Surface Vehicles

“…These digital tools enable their users to fully harness the power of modeling and simulation in the design and analysis of a wide range of physical systems and processes. For example, finite-element modeling and simulation help in the design of safer bridges and buildings [3], while computational fluid dynamic simulations are vital in the aerodynamic and hydrodynamic analysis of fuel-efficient aircraft and ships [4], respectively.…”