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Thermal Impacts of Air Cavities Associated with Insulated Panels Deployed for Exterior Building Envelope Assemblies

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  • Utsav Dahal

    (Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering Department, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309, USA)

  • Moncef Krarti

    (Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering Department, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309, USA)

Abstract

This paper presents a comprehensive investigation to evaluate the impacts of air cavities between existing walls and insulated panels on the overall R-values of the retrofitted building envelope systems, addressing a key challenge in exterior envelope retrofitting. The effects of several factors are considered including the air cavity thickness (ranging from 0.1 cm to 5 cm), airflow velocity (varying between 0.1 m/s and 1 m/s), and surface emissivity (set between 0.1 and 0.9), in addition to the thickness of the insulated panels (ranging from 1 cm to 7 cm). It is found that any increase in the air cavity thickness increases the overall R-values of the building envelope assemblies when air is trapped within the sealed cavity. However, when air convection is prevalent, the overall R-value of the retrofitted walls decreases with any increase in air velocity and air cavity thickness. For sealed air cavities, the analysis results show a 9% improvement in R-value of the retrofitted walls. However, the R-value of retrofitted walls with unsealed air cavities can degrade by 76% and 81% for natural and forced air flows, respectively. Emissivity adjustment is found to be the most effective in improving the thermal performance of building envelopes with sealed air cavities, increasing the R-value of retrofitted walls by 13.6% when reduced from 0.9 to 0.1.

Suggested Citation

  • Utsav Dahal & Moncef Krarti, 2025. "Thermal Impacts of Air Cavities Associated with Insulated Panels Deployed for Exterior Building Envelope Assemblies," Energies, MDPI, vol. 18(13), pages 1-20, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:18:y:2025:i:13:p:3573-:d:1696360
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Zhang, Tiantian & Yang, Hongxing, 2019. "Heat transfer pattern judgment and thermal performance enhancement of insulation air layers in building envelopes," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 250(C), pages 834-845.
    2. Amir Ali & Anas Issa & Ahmed Elshaer, 2024. "A Comprehensive Review and Recent Trends in Thermal Insulation Materials for Energy Conservation in Buildings," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(20), pages 1-42, October.
    3. Zhang, Tiantian & Tan, Yufei & Yang, Hongxing & Zhang, Xuedan, 2016. "The application of air layers in building envelopes: A review," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 707-734.
    4. Bond, Danielle E.M. & Clark, William W. & Kimber, Mark, 2013. "Configuring wall layers for improved insulation performance," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 235-245.
    5. Nurlan Zhangabay & Arukhan Oner & Murat Rakhimov & Timur Tursunkululy & Uliya Abdikerova, 2025. "Thermal Performance Evaluation of a Retrofitted Building with Adaptive Composite Energy-Saving Facade Systems," Energies, MDPI, vol. 18(6), pages 1-25, March.
    6. Kyle Biega & Moncef Krarti, 2024. "Evaluation of Exterior Insulated Panels for Residential Deep Energy Retrofits," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(16), pages 1-30, August.
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