Extract

Wall assemblies, both external and internal, have an impact on the thermal comfort and energy performance of the buildings. While the effect of external envelope is well documented in literature, the studies on influence of internal wall partitions remain limited. Thus, a simulation study is conducted to understand the performance of different internal wall partitions in a residential apartment located in warm and humid climate (Chennai, India). The two properties of wall assemblies that impact the energy and comfort in a space are thermal transmittance (U-value) and thermal mass. Four different internal partitions are simulated in the model: brick, concrete, AAC, and drywalls, which have varied thermal conductivity and thermal capacity. The external wall in the model is considered to be of brick wall in all four cases. The TRNSYS simulation results for the considered model indicate that lightweight partitions, like drywalls and AAC, can reduce the cooling consumption by 12% and increasing the occupied thermal comfort hours by 6-19% as compared to the base case (internal and external wall – brick). Furthermore, the data is also processed in MATLAB to yield spatial distribution of operative temperature in the room, highlighting the ability of lightweight materials to lose heat faster.

Keywords: cooling consumption, thermal comfort, TRNSYS, MATLAB

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