THERMAL BRIDGES MODELING IN BIOCLIMATIC ZONE 2: FIVE DIFFERENT APPROACHES

Abstract

Thermal bridges are vulnerable points present in the envelope of buildings and influence the thermoenergetic performance and still bring consequences to the opaque surface such as the favoring in the formation of filamentous fungi. The impacts of thermal bridges and their consideration in calculations of thermal transmittance have been discussed in different parts of the world and in regions of cold climates in Brazil. This work aims to evaluate the impact of thermal bridges of reinforced concrete structure in a residential building in the bioclimatic zone 2, considering five approaches for modeling of thermal bridges in the EnergyPlus computational simulation software. The results show that the type of approach used for modeling in computational simulation influences the energy consumption values of the building. The different models tested showed variations in building energy consumption when comparing the strategies that considered the calculations of thermal bridges with the approach that disregarded this calculation, especially in high insulated buildings, where it was possible to identify differences of up to 13%. The conclusions observed show that the level of insulation of the envelope is one of the factors that interferes in the differences in building consumption between the approaches evaluated for thermal bridges.

Keywords: Linear Thermal Bridges, Computer Simulation, Energy Performance