Empirical validation and modelling of a naturally ventilated rainscreen facade building

Marinosci, C. and Strachan, Paul and Semprini, G. and Morini, G.L. (2011) Empirical validation and modelling of a naturally ventilated rainscreen facade building. Energy and Buildings, 43 (4). pp. 853-863. ISSN 0378-7788 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2010.12.005)

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Abstract

In this paper the thermal behaviour of a rainscreen ventilated facade has been investigated both experimentally and numerically. Field measurements were performed during the 2009/10 winter season in a test building located in San Mauro Pascoli (Italy) having a squared base of internal dimension of 2.89 m and a total internal height of 7.75 m. The external walls of this tower are rainscreen ventilated facades with a 24 cm air cavity and an external side composed of stoneware with open joints. Ventilation grills are located at the top and at the bottom of the tower. In this work the modelling of the test building using a dynamic thermal simulation program (ESP-r) is presented and the main results discussed. In order to study the rainscreen ventilated facade three different multi-zone models were defined and the comparison with the experimental results has been used in order to select the best ESP-r air flow network for the modelling of this kind of envelope component. The thermal analysis of this envelope component evidenced that the ventilated facade is able to reverse the direction of the heat flux through the envelope in regions characterized by large solar irradiation during the winter and moderate wind velocity, when the indoor-outdoor air temperature difference is small, thereby reducing the energy consumption required for indoor heating.

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