TY - JOUR
T1 - Condensation risk due to variations in airtightness and thermal insulation of an office building in warm and wet climate
AU - Cho, Wanghee
AU - Iwamoto, Shizuo
AU - Kato, Shinsuke
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank Shouhei Teranishi of the Shin Nippon Air Technologies Co., LTD. He contributed to one part of the simulation setup and subsequent data analysis during a master's course at Kanagawa University.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 by the authors.
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - Condensation in a building encourages microbial growth, which can have an adverse effect on the health of occupants. Furthermore, it induces the deterioration of the building. To prevent problems caused by condensation, from the design step of a building, predictions of the spatial, temporal and causation for condensation occurrences are necessary. By using TRNSYS simulation coupled with TRNFLOW, condensation assessment of an entire office building in Tokyo, Japan, was conducted throughout the year, including when the air-conditioning system was not operated, by considering the absorption-desorption properties of the building materials and papers in the office and the airflow within the entire building. It was found that most of the condensation occurred during winter and was observed mainly in the non-air-conditioned core parts, especially the topmost floor. Additional analyses, which identified the effect of variations in the thermal insulation of the external walls, roof and windows and the airtightness of the windows on condensation, showed that the lower airtightness of windows resulted in decreased condensation risks, and condensation within the building was suppressed completely when the thermal insulation material thickness of the external walls was greater than 75 mm, that of the roof was greater than 105 mm and the windows had triple float glass.
AB - Condensation in a building encourages microbial growth, which can have an adverse effect on the health of occupants. Furthermore, it induces the deterioration of the building. To prevent problems caused by condensation, from the design step of a building, predictions of the spatial, temporal and causation for condensation occurrences are necessary. By using TRNSYS simulation coupled with TRNFLOW, condensation assessment of an entire office building in Tokyo, Japan, was conducted throughout the year, including when the air-conditioning system was not operated, by considering the absorption-desorption properties of the building materials and papers in the office and the airflow within the entire building. It was found that most of the condensation occurred during winter and was observed mainly in the non-air-conditioned core parts, especially the topmost floor. Additional analyses, which identified the effect of variations in the thermal insulation of the external walls, roof and windows and the airtightness of the windows on condensation, showed that the lower airtightness of windows resulted in decreased condensation risks, and condensation within the building was suppressed completely when the thermal insulation material thickness of the external walls was greater than 75 mm, that of the roof was greater than 105 mm and the windows had triple float glass.
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U2 - 10.3390/en9110875
DO - 10.3390/en9110875
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85021217388
VL - 9
JO - Energies
JF - Energies
SN - 1996-1073
IS - 11
M1 - 875
ER -