Thermal and economic analysis of commonly used building walls for cooling applications

In this thesis, thermal and economical analysis of commonly used building walls is carried out to determine the most economical wall material to be used in the building exterior walls. For that reason, heating or cooling loads are required to obtain this data. Total heat gain from the exterior walls consists of great amount of cooling load for a building. The total heat gain from exterior walls of a building can be determined by using the Total Equivalent Temperature Difference (TETD) method. The TETD values for the walls are calculated by using the mathematical method. The TETD is functions of solar radiation flux, outside air and sol-air temperature, time lag (TL) and decrement factor (DF). The hourly solar radiation on a tilted surface is computed using hourly measured solar radiation data on horizontal surface. The hourly values of solar radiation flux on horizontal surface and outside air temperatures have been measured in Gaziantep for ten years (1997-2007) and are taken from the Turkish State Meteorological Service. The different values of TL and DF are estimated for different types and thicknesses of walls. The economical analysis is based on a Life Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA). A computer program is developed to perform these numerical calculations. This program is used for briquette, brick, blokbims, Autoclaved Aerated Concrete(AAC) which are commonly used materials in Turkey. As a result of this work, optimum thickness of briquette, brick, blokbims and AAC are obtained as 29.21, 25.61, 15.74 and 9.84cm, respectively.When briquette, brick, blokbims and AAC walls which are considered 15cm are insulated with XPS, the optimum insulation thickness of briquette, brick, blokbims and AAC are obtained 0.06 , 0.06 , 0.04 and 0.03m , respectively.