CE 41300 – Building Envelope Design and Thermal Loads

Credits and contact hours:

  • 3 credits
  • Lecture that meets 2 times per week for 75 minutes per meeting for 15 weeks

Specific course information:

  • Catalog description: The built environment. Building envelope assemblies and construction types. Steady-state and transient heat conduction through opaque walls. Thermal bridges. RC thermal networks. Convection and radiation heat transfer in buildings. Thermal and optical properties of windows. Solar radiation models and solar heat gains. Passive solar building design. Infiltration and peak heating load calculation. Energy balance equations and detailed cooling load calculations. Heat balance method. Advanced energy guides and building simulation models. Innovative building technologies.
  • Prerequisites: CE 31100 Architectural Engineering or instructor permission
  • Course status: Technical elective design course

Specific Goals for the course:

  • Student learning outcomes - Upon successful completion of this course the student shall be able to:
    • Solve energy balance equations for building surfaces and room air
    • Calculate transient hourly heating and cooling loads for a building throughout the year using analytical and computational models.
    • Design building envelopes according to national standards
    • Understand principles of passive solar design and the application of innovative envelope technologies.
  •  Relationship of course to program outcomes
    • Outcome 1: An ability to identify, formulate, and solve complex engineering problems by applying principles of engineering, science, and mathematics.
    • Outcome 2: An ability to apply engineering design to produce solutions that meet specified needs with consideration of public health, safety, and welfare, as well as global, cultural, social, environmental, and economic factors
    • Outcome 4: An ability to recognize ethical and professional responsibilities in engineering situations and make informed judgments, which must consider the impact of engineering solutions in global, economic, environmental, and societal contexts
    • Outcome 5: An ability to function effectively on a team whose members together provide leadership, create a collaborative and inclusive environment, establish goals, plan tasks, and meet objectives
    • Outcome 6: An ability to develop and conduct appropriate experimentation, analyze and interpret data, and use engineering judgment to draw conclusions

Topics:

  • Building systems and the built environment – Energy use in buildings; urban microclimate; introduction to building science; building systems and domains; atmosphere and climate and their effect on buildings and occupants
  • The building envelope –Wall construction types and materials; cavity, barrier and mass walls; facades; foundation and basement wall thermal details; roof construction thermal design; curtain wall details; thermal bridges; residential envelope construction and the role of insulation; test methods for heat, air and water leakage
  • Steady-state and transient heat conduction through building opaque sections –Prediction of steady state heat flow and temperature gradients in single and multi-layered walls; parallel heat flows in real wall assemblies; heat transfer through doors, ceilings, roofs, attic spaces, basements, window frames, pipes; Transient RC networks; performance design tables and introduction to ASHRAE energy design guides
  • Convection and radiation heat transfer in buildings- Internal/ external convective surface coefficients; grey surfaces; long wave radiative heat exchange between building surfaces; view factor calculations; exterior surface radiation models
  • Windows – Solar- optical properties of windows; coatings; combined convection and radiation coefficients; window overall thermal resistance calculations; specification tables
  • Solar radiation in buildings - Solar geometry; direct and diffuse solar radiation models; solar irradiance on exterior building surfaces; transmission through windows; shading calculations and design methods; solar heat gain coefficients and performance tables
  • Infiltration and Heating load calculation– Air leakage calculation methods; infiltration conductance calculation; energy cost of infiltration; climatic data and heating design information; calculation of peak heating load for residential and commercial buildings
  • Energy balance equations and building cooling load calculation- Calculation of energy flows in rooms; thermal storage; room energy balance; transient thermal network approach; cooling climatic design information; internal gains; semi-transient models and the heat balance method; peak loads
  • Building simulation, energy guides, and advanced technologies – Basic modeling methods and simulation software; ASHRAE energy design guides and Standards; passive solar design; high performance and smart building technologies