Thermal Performance of the Critical Components of a CFS Intensive Mid-rise Residential Building

Thermal Performance of the Critical Components of a CFS Intensive Mid-rise Residential Building

Authors:

Aziz Ahmed, Mohammed Sohel and Lip Teh

Organisation of Presenter:

University of Wollongong, Australia

Abstract:

Development of a new building system offers a unique opportunity to explore the avenues of energy efficiency from the early design stage. The benefit is achieving the desired energy performance using the existing components , thus reducing the cost and time associated with installing additional components for thermal comfort. The development of such a construction system poses several architectural and structural design challenges as well as serviceability concerns such as thermal, acoustics and fire performances. However, this paper focuses on the thermal performance and structural integrity of a CFS intensive mid-rise residential building. The connections of CFS residential buildings structures require the presence of thermal breaks. Current paper studies the effectiveness and limitations of the thermal brakes in improving the thermal performance of the system. The studied structural configuration is similar to a six-storey CFS building that underwent a shaking table test at the University of California San Diego. The present study investigates the thermal performance of the wall, floor and roof components by modeling the the primary structural components at ground, mid and roof level. The current study employs TRNSYS and ENERGYPLUS to identify the effects of different critical components on the system’s energy efficiency and the thermal comfort of the residents. As the thermal performances of the individual components dictate the overall behavior of the building, present investigation act as a benchmark case for the further development of an energy efficient cold-formed steel intensive mid-rise residential building system.