Abstract
Four different buildings having various wall construction are analyzed for the effect of wall mass on the thermal performance and inside building air and wall temperature transient and also for calculating the energy consumption load. This analytical study was motivated by the experimental work of Burch et al. An analytical solution of one-dimensional, linear, partial differential equations is obtained using the Laplace transform method, Bromwich and modified Bromwich contour method. A simple dynamic model using steady state analysis as simplified methods is developed and results of energy consumption loads are compared with results obtained using the analytical solution. Typical Meteorological Year data are processed to yield hourly average monthly values. This study is conducted using weather data from two different locations in Korea: Daegu having severe weather in summer and winter and Jeju having mild weather almost all year round. There is a significant wall mass effect on the thermal performance of a building in mild weather condition. Buildings of heavyweight construction with insulation show the highest comfort level in mild weather condition. A proportional controller provides the higher comfort level in comparison with buildings using on-off controller. The steady state analysis gives an accurate estimate of energy load for all types of construction. Finally, it appears that both mass and wall insulation are important factors in the thermal performance of buildings, but their relative merits should be decided in each building by a strict analysis of the building layout, weather conditions and site condition.
