Analyzing the Change in Linear Thermal Transmittance according to the Depth of Slab in Wall-Slab Test Specimen Installed with Structural Thermal Break

Purpose: In this study, the performance of wall installed with structural thermal break was evaluated using both simulation and physical testing methods based on the ｢KS F 2277: Methods for measuring thermal insulation properties of building components – calibrated thermal box method and protective thermal box method｣ standards. The authors intend to use the study results to present standard specifications for wall-slab test specimens to establish a methodology which is able to evaluate the performance of thermal barrier in the future. Method: This study was held by conducting a physical experiment on wall-slab composite structure installed with structural thermal break. Specifically, the amount of heat transfer (W) was measured through the physical experiment, and this measured value was used to calculate the linear thermal transmittance (W/m·K) of the thermal bridging area. In addition, simulation analysis was performed to examine the amount of heat transfer and linear thermal transmittance for the ranges that are difficult to cover in physical experiments (i.e., slab depth between 100 and 600mm). Result: The results show that the amount of heat transfer and linear thermal transmittance of the test specimen increased as the depth of the reinforced concrete slab increased. Additionally, the simulated results show that the heat transfer value began to be maintained constantly at a slab depth between 400 and 500mm, which was approximately 4.4% higher than that of the slab depth of 100mm.