Influence of internal and external boundary conditions on the decrement factor and time lag heat flux of building walls in steady periodic regime

The dynamic behaviour of opaque components of the building envelope in steady periodic regime is investigated using parameters defined by the fluctuating heat flux that is transferred in the wall. The use of the heat flux allows for the joint action of the loadings that characterise both the outdoor environment and the indoor air-conditioned environment to be taken into account.The analysis was developed in sinusoidal conditions to determine the frequency response of the wall and in non-sinusoidal conditions to identify the actual dynamic behaviour of the wall. The use of non-dimensional periodic thermal transmittance is proposed for the sinusoidal analysis in order to evaluate the decrement factor and the time lag that the heat flux undergoes in crossing the wall as well as the efficiency of heat storage.In the presence of non-sinusoidal loadings, the identification of the dynamic behaviour of the wall is obtained using several dynamic parameters: the decrement factor in terms of energy, defined as the ratio between the energy in a semi-period entering and exiting the wall; the decrement factor and the time lag in terms of heat flux, considering the maximum peak and the minimum peak. These parameters allow for the identification of how the form of the heat flux trend crossing the wall is modified.The number of harmonics to be considered for an accurate representation of heat fluxes is determined by means of the introduction of the Total Harmonic Distortion (THD), which quantifies the distortion of a non-sinusoidal periodic trend compared to a sinusoidal trend.The methodology developed was used to evaluate the influence of external and internal loadings on the dynamic characteristics of two commonly used walls on a monthly and seasonal basis. The external loadings were changed considering two climatically different locations and different orientations of the walls; the internal loadings were changed by varying the operating mode of the plant and the shortwave radiative heat fluxes contributions on the inner surface.