Abstract
In this paper, a new experimental method to determine the thermal resistance of building wall was proposed by improving the heat flow method (HFM) based on the air-surface temperature ratio theory. This technique measures the thermal resistance of the wall excluding the inner and outer surface heat transfer resistance. Unlike conventional HFM, this value can be compared directly with the theoretical reference value. Its performance was verified using three mock-up structures with a theoretical thermal transmittance of 0.5, 3.3, and 0.18 W/㎡·K respectively. After measuring the variations in the temperature and heat transfer rate of the mock-ups for 383 hours, the thermal transmittances were determined to be 0.47, 3.10, and 0.18 W/㎡·K, which corresponded to errors of 5.2, 6.2 and 0.5%, respectively, compared to the theoretical values. It was concluded that this technique can directly compare the thermal resistance of the wall between the existent stage and initial stage after construction.