Thermal Performance Assessment of External Wall Construction for Energy-Efficient Buildings

Building envelope such as external walls are still constructed from poor materials which results in higher heating and cooling loads thereby raising energy bills. Improving building efficiency with advanced technologies is being sought. In this context, a numerical study was conducted to solve the coupled heat transfers through standard wall structure used Libyan residential buildings. Different techniques were compared reduce thermal transmittance of traditional for saving including application radiant shield, low-e coating, insulating filling insulation. The revealed that radiation inside cavities hollow block important accounts 21% total transfer, while conductive convective transfer contributes by 65% 14% total, respectively. obtained value common considered high 2.33 W/m2·K due lower resistance elements. adoption 50 mm layer expanded polystyrene insulation (EPS) exterior showed best performance reduction 45%. On other hand, interior EPS resulted 37% 20% using 3 aluminum foil barrier middle cavities. last case less effective almost 10% when commercial coating 0.4 surface emissivity applied