- Title
- The assessment of the thermal performance of various walling systems and complete houses using the dynamic temperature response concept
- Creator
- Zhang, Congcong
- Relation
- University of Newcastle Research Higher Degree Thesis
- Resource Type
- thesis
- Date
- 2021
- Description
- Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
- Description
- In the context of a growing energy crisis, energy conservation has become a critical consideration in building design. Relatedly, in Australia, the use of air conditioning accounts for over a third of residential energy use. An efficient way to reduce the energy consumption required for housing thermal comfort is to use passive principles to design houses that aim to achieve a high thermal performance through the use of renewable sources of energy (mainly solar energy) by their own fabric (such as walls and floors), instead of relying on the air conditioning system. The selection of the appropriate building materials and their configuration with correct thermal properties is a major aspect in this passive design. In order to support the passive design of Australian housing, the University of Newcastle commenced a research study on the development of solutions for the assessment of the dynamic thermal performance of building materials and complete houses by analysing the internal temperature response under dynamic external temperature conditions. Prior to this PhD research, the University of Newcastle’s Thermal Research Group had carried out some significant research, particularly on the development or selection of the analysis, testing and simulation methods for the study. These methods were dynamic temperature response (DTR) analysis, dynamic laboratory testing and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation. As part of the larger thermal research study, the main focus of the current PhD research was on the application and validation of these methods for the study of the dynamic thermal performance of Australian housing. Various walls with different thermal properties were tested in the laboratory using the new dynamic testing method. This laboratory testing data, together with some previously collected full-scale housing module in situ testing data, formed the database of this research for studying the dynamic thermal performance of individual walls and house enclosures, particularly the influence of various thermal influencing factors (specifically the thermal mass and thermal resistance (i.e., R-value)). The DTR analysis was applied to analyse both sets of experimental data, and it was used to assess the effectiveness of the various analyses. The CFD simulation software “Autodesk CFD” was adapted to simulate the full-scale in situ tests, in order to identify the accuracy of the CFD analysis for the prediction of thermal performance of houses under actual weather conditions. The outcomes of this research have the potential to strongly support the selection of appropriate building materials for housing thermal performance design by providing effective analysis, simulation and testing methods. The DTR analysis was proved to have the ability to take into account the various thermal influencing factors, not just limited to thermal mass and thermal resistance, thus addressing the current flawed design practice of placing most of the emphasis on the thermal resistance alone. In addition, the study on the dynamic thermal performance of the commonly used, as well as some novel, wall types can be used as a good reference for the selection of wall constructions in housing design.
- Subject
- Australian housing; dynamic thermal performance; DTR; passive design; dynamic temperature response; CFD simulation; thermal mass; thermal resistance; R value
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1421316
- Identifier
- uon:37714
- Rights
- Copyright 2021 Congcong Zhang
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
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| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT01 | Thesis | 11 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download | ||
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT02 | Abstract | 184 KB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |