A Comparative Simulation Study of the Thermal Performances of the Building Envelope Wall Materials in the Tropics

Abstract

The building walls which form the major part of the building envelope thermally interact with the changing surrounding environment throughout the day influencing the indoor thermal comfort of the space. This paper aims at assessing in detail the different aspects (thermophysical properties, thickness, exposure to solar heat gain, etc.) of opaque building wall materials affecting the indoor thermal environment and energy efficiency of the buildings in tropical climate (in the summer and winter days) by conducting simplified simulation analysis using the Integrated Environmental Solutions Virtual Environment (IES-VE) program. Besides, the thermal efficiency of a number of selected wall materials with different thermal properties and wall configurations was analysed to determine the most optimal option for the studied climate. This study first developed the conditions for parametric simulation analysis and then addressed selected findings by comparing the thermal responses of the materials to moderate outdoor temperature and energy-saving potential. While energy consumption estimation for a complete operational building is a complex method by which the performance of the wall materials cannot be properly defined, as a result, this simplistic simulation approach can guide the designers to preliminary analyse the different building wall materials in order to select the best thermal efficiency solution.