Optimization study of thermal defects in prefabricated rural residential buildings based on Fluent

To promote the modernization of rural residential buildings in Xinjiang and address the thermal bridge issues present in prefabricated rural housing, this study focuses on an existing prefabricated rural residence in Shihezi City, Xinjiang. By employing a combined approach of infrared thermography and numerical simulation, six optimization measures were proposed for four typical thermal bridge locations within the building, leading to the development of corresponding optimized structural details. Temperature distribution and heat flow optimization simulations were conducted accordingly. Comparative analysis indicates that for vertical joint seams, designing the two adjacent walls to have similar heat transfer coefficient yields better performance than extending the insulation board on the exterior side of the cast-in-place shear wall to cover the inner joint seam, achieving a relative reduction of 28.92% in the linear heat transfer coefficient at the thermal bridge locations. For horizontal joint seams, local filling insulation blocks combined with seamless interior plastering can optimize the linear heat transfer coefficient by approximately 10%. When using sandwich-core insulated prefabricated wall panels, thermal bridge simulation results at window frame installation locations indicate that thermal performance ranks as follows: insulation layer > concrete layer > reinforced concrete layer. After comprehensively weighing structural safety and actual insulation effectiveness, it was ultimately determined that installing windows within the concrete layer yields the optimal overall performance.