THERMAL DESIGN

1. Concerned with the heat transfer

processes
2. Concerned with the energy used to
provide heating, cooling and
ventilation of buildings
 INTRODUCTION TO HEAT

Basically, heat is energy. It manifests itself as

either molecular vibration within a substance or as
an electromagnetic radiation.

Temperature on the other hand, is simply a

measure of the amount of heat present within a
material.
OR
It is measure of degree of hotness and coldness of a
body.

Units of Measure
As energy, heat is measured in watts (W) and
temperature is measured in degrees Celsius (C) or
Kelvin (K).
Heat Flow

The second law of thermodynamics states that

energy (heat) transfer can only take place in one
direction, from a higher grade to lower grade
state.
This means that subject to steady temperature
difference, heat will only flow from hot to cold,
never the other way.

Heat flow between objects occurs in three ways.

1. Conduction
2. Convection
3. Radiation
Conduction
This form of heat propagation results from the
transfer of vibrational energy from one molecule
to the next.

The closer together the molecules of a material, the

greater the interference and the faster the heat
transfer rate.

The heat flow rate is referred to as the conductivity

of a materials and tends to be greater in high
density materials.

The rate of heat flow from one side of an object to

the other, or between objects that touch,
depends on the cross-sectional area of flow, the
conductivity of the material and the temperature
difference between the two surfaces or objects.
Convection

Heat transfer from a solid to a fluid (liquid or

gaseous) creates heat differentials within the fluid
generally cause internal movement known as
convection currents.

The magnitude of convective heat flow within the

fluid depends upon the area of contact with the
solid, its viscosity, velocity past the solid, flow
characteristics and the overall temperature
difference between the two.

Because material must actually be moved,

convection is less efficient than conduction
Radiation

Radiant heat is simply heat energy in transit as

electromagnetic radiations.

All objects that contain heat emit some level of

radiant energy. The amount of radiation is inversely
proportional to its wavelength (the shorter the
wavelength the greater the energy content) which
is, in turn, inversely proportional to its temperature
(in K). Hence, objects at terrestrial temperatures
radiate long-wave infrared whereas very hot
objects, such as the Sun, emit both long and short-
wave radiation.

The least efficient method of heat transfer is

radiation.
Heat Flow in Buildings
The thermal behaviour of a building is basically a
function of its form (architecture), its construction
(materials and workmanship), local macro and micro-
climate conditions, and by its use.
A typical building structure consists of many
components of different thermal conductances
arranged variously in series and parallel. For
example, the side of a house may have some regions
of cavity brick wall into which are inset some metal
window frames fitted with single sheets of glass.
Thus, there will be some parts of the room behind
that are separated from the outside by only one layer
of glass, in parallel with some parts that have two
layers of thin metal (the window frame), in parallel
with some parts that have a layer of brick in series
with an air gap, another layer of brick and a coating
of plaster. The overall thermal performance of the
Thermal Resistance
Conduction occurs when a temperature differential causes
heatflowwithinamaterialorbetweenmaterialsinthermal
contact.Theabilityofmaterialstotransferheatasaresult
of a given temperature difference varies - from metals like
silverandcopperwhichareexcellentconductors,togases
likeargonwhichareverypoorconductors.
Therateatwhichheatflowsthroughaslabofhomogenous
materialundersteady-stateconditionsisgivenby:
Q=A.T
R
where:
Q=theresultantheatflow(Watts)
A=thesurfaceareathroughwhichtheheatflows(m)
T = the temperature difference between the warm and cold sides of
thematerial(K),and
R = the thermal resistance per unit area of the piece of material
(mK/W).
Conductance Vs Conductivity
Conductivity (k) is a material property and means its
ability to conduct heat through its internal structure.
Conductance on the other hand is an object property
and depends on both its material and thickness.
Conductance equals conductivity multiplied by
thickness, in units of W/mK.

As conductivity is the reciprocal of resistivity, the

total resistance of a material can therefore be given
as its total thickness divided by total conductivity.
The total resistance of an element includes all of the
resistances of the individual materials that make it
up as well as both the internal and external air-film
resistance.

Air film resistance results from convection currents at

the surface of a material. As the surface heats up or
cools down, it affects the temperature of the air
immediately adjacent. This then starts to rise or fall
depending on whether it is hotter or colder. This has
the same effect as increasing the resistance of the
material to the flow of heat.

Standard air-film resistances. R (mK/W)

Internal Air-Film Resistance (Rsi) 8.13
External Air-Film Resistance (Rso) 18.18
Composite Building Materials

For a composite building element made up of a

number of layers of different materials, its total
resistance is given as:

Rt = Rso + Rn + Rsi

where the resistance of the nth layer is:

Rn = tn/kn

where:
Rt = the total overall resistance of the element (mK/W),
RN = the resistance of the nth material within a composite element (mK/W),
tn = the thickness of the nth material in a composite element (m), and
kn = is the conductivity in of the nth material in a composite element.
The U-Value
The U-Value represents the air-to-air transmittance of
an element. This refers to how well an element
conducts heat from one side to the other, which
makes it the reciprocal of its thermal resistance.
Thus, if we calculate the thermal resistance of an
element, we can simply invert it to obtain the U-
Value
U = 1 / Rt :
U = _______1________
Rso + + Rsi

The U-Value is a property of a material. Thus its units

are Watts per metre squared Kelvin (W/m K). This
means that, if a wall material had a U-Value of 1
W/m K, for every degree of temperature difference
between the inside and outside surface, 1 Watt of
As an example, assume a wall with a U-Value of 4.5
W/m K and a surface area of 10 m. If the outside
temperature was 30C and the inside was 25C, we
could calculate the total heat gain due to conduction
through the wall as follows:

Q = U A T
= 4.5 x 10.0 x (30-25)
= 225 Watts
where:
Q = the resultant heat flow (Watts)
A = the surface area through which the heat flows
(m)
T = the temperature difference between the warm
and cold sides of the material (K), and
R = the thermal resistance per unit area of the piece
of material (mK/W).
Cavities and Air Spaces
Heat is transferred across an air space by a
combination of conduction, convection and
radiation. Heat transfer by conduction is inversely
proportional to depth of the air space. Convection is
mainly dependant on the height of the air space
and its depth. Heat transfer by radiation is
relatively independent of both thickness and
height, but is greatly dependent on the reflectivity
of the internal surfaces. All three mechanisms are
dependent on the temperatures of surface
temperatures. When all three heat transfer
processes occur at the same time, the overall
thermal resistance of air spaces, between both
reflective and non-reflective surfaces, becomes
virtually independent of gap depth when it is
greater than around 25mm.
The objective of thermal controls are:
1)whencolddiscomfortconditionsprevail:
a) topreventheatloss
b) toutilizeheatgainfromsunandinternalsources
c) tocompensateforanynetloss,byheatingwhichusessomeform
ofenergysupply.
2) whenhotdiscomfortconditionsprevail:
a) topreventheatgain
b) tomaximizeheatloss
c) toremoveanyexcessheatbycooling,whichusessomeformof
energysupply.
3) whenconditionsvarydiurnallybetweenhotandcold
discomfort:
a) toevenoutvariations
b) (1)inthecoldphaseand(2)inthehotphase
c) tocompensateforbothexcessesbyaflexibleheatingandcooling
system.
Objectivesunderaandbineachgroupcanbeachievedbystructural
orconstructional(passive)means,itemc ineachgroupisthetaskof
mechanicalorenergy-basedcontrols.
Fourvariableswhichdesignercancontrol for the reduction
of solar heat gain through window:

1. Orientation and window size

2. Internal blinds, curtains
3. Special glasses
4. External shading devices

Internalblindsandcurtainsarenotveryeffectivewaysofsolarcontrol.
ThehotsurfaceoftheblindcausestheindoorMRTtorisefarabove
theairtemperature.
Useofheatabsorbingglassdoesnotsignificantlyimprovethe
transmissionofheatthroughthewindow.Toovercomethisabsorption
heatgain,onecanmounttheheatabsorbingglassatsomedistance
(0.5to1.0m)infrontofordinaryglassedwindow.
Heatreflectingglass(goldcoated,nickelcoated)absorbverylittleheat
buttheyareveryexpensive.Photochromaticorlight-sensitiveglasses
reducestransmittancetoalmostnil.
Three basic types of external shading devices:

Vertical blades:Itconsistoflouverbladesorprojecting
finsinaverticalposition.Narrowbladeswithclose
spacingmaygivethesameshadowangleasbroader
bladeswithwiderspacing.Thisdeviceismosteffective
whenthesunistoonesideoftheelevation,suchasan
easternorwesternelevation.
Horizontal blades:Itconsistofcanopies,horizontal
louverbladesorexternallyappliedvenetianblinds.This
deviceismosteffectivewhenthesunisoppositetothe
buildingfaceconsideredandatahighangle,suchas
northandsouthfacingwalls.Toexcludealowanglesun,
thistypeofdevicewouldhavetocoverofthewhole
window,permittingaviewdownwardsonly.
Egg-crate devices:Theyarecombinationofhorizontal
andverticalelementsi.e.grille-blocksanddecorative
screens.
Heat Balance Equation
(Sources of heat gain and loss within a building.)
Thermal balance occurs when the sum of all the
different types of heat flow into and out of a building
is zero. That is, the building is losing as much heat
as it gains so it can be said to be in equilibrium.
Thus:

Qc + Q v + Q s + Q i + Q e = 0

QC Conduction Gains (Fabric Gain)

Qv Ventilation Gains

Qs Solar Gains

Qi Internal Gains

QE Evaporative Loss