Experimental method for estimating the effect of solar radiation on the inner surface heat flux of opaque building envelope elements

There still exists a considerable difference when comparing the real and the design energy consumption of buildings. The difference between the design and the real building envelope energy performance is one of its main reasons. The building envelope can be characterised through the individual characterisation of its different building envelope components such as opaque walls or windows. Therefore, the estimation of parameters such as their transmission heat transfer coefficient (UA) and their solar aperture (gA) is usually implemented. Although building components have been analysed over the years, the thermal characteristics of buildings have mainly been estimated through steady-state laboratory tests and simplified calculation/simulation procedures based on theoretical data. The use of inverse modelling based on registered dynamic data has also been used; however, unfortunately, the models used tend to significantly simplify or neglect the solar radiation effect on the inner surface heat flux of opaque building envelope elements. Therefore, this work presents an experimental, dynamic and inverse modelling method that accurately models non-linear phenomena through the use of a user-friendly simulation programme (LORD). The method is able to analyse in detail the effect of the solar radiation on the inner surface heat flux of opaque building envelope elements, without the necessity of knowing their constructive details or thermal properties. The experiment is performed in a fully monitored test box, where different models are tested with different opaque walls to find the best fit. Finally, the solar irradiance signal is removed from the best models so as to accurately quantify the weight of the solar radiation on the inner surface heat flux of each wall for two extreme periods, one for sunny summer days and other for cloudy winter days.