Numerical investigation of building wall structures for different insulation materials

Buildings are recognized as among the most energy-consuming systems, accounting for about 30% of the world's energy consumption and sources of greenhouse gas emissions. Improving thermal behaviour while maintaining occupant comfort has become increasingly important in worldwide. Insulation materials used in building wall have a significant effect on mitigating thermal load of the building. In this thesis, numerical analysis of building wall structure is carried out using the explicit finite difference technique. The energy balance equations are written for each layer of the multilayer wall and discretized for each nodal point using the explicit finite difference method. The proposed model is validated with analytical solution of single layer wall. Then, a multi-layered wall analysis is conducted and verified with the previously published numerical data. This study examined the thermal pattern of building walls composed of four layers such as inner plaster, Hollow brick, insulation materials, and outer plaster. The analysis is carried out using actual weather data for 4 days in a city with a Mediterranean climate during summertime in Türkiye. The examined model is coded in the computer programming language MATLAB. The time-wise variation of inner surface temperature of building wall is obtained. The result show that, the temperatures for different materials at the end of 24 hours are as follows: Perlite reached approximately 41°C, Rock Wool approximately 42°C, Silica Aerogel approximately 38°C and XPS approximately 39°C. The results showed that silica aerogel material has a significant role in reducing thermal load in buildings.