DYNAMIC CALCULATION OF THERMAL BRIDGES

Thermal bridges play a relatively large role in heat loss with increas ing thermal insulation level of building envelope. In this paper, mult idimensional dynamic models are set up to predict the thermal performa nces of thermal bridges using a frequency response method. The thermal bridge is divided into finite meshes where the nodal temperatures are expressed in the form of complex quantities that are related to ampli tude and phase lag of the variations of the temperature. By considerin g the heat balance for the nodes, the real and imaginary parts of the nodal temperatures can be solved simultaneously. A PC computer program has been developed to calculate the dynamic responses of and heat flo ws within thermal bridges, and has been utilized for thermal bridges s uch as a light weight metal stud wall, a heavy temperatures and heat f lows within thermal bridges, and has been utilized for thermal bridges such as a light weight metal stud wall, a heavy weight wall-intermedi ate floor junction and a wall foundation with ground coupling. (C) 199 7 Elsevier Science S.A.