Influence of Climate on the Coupled Heat and Moisture Transfer Thermal Calculation In China

The climate in China varies substantially across its extensive territory. However, the traditional thermal design of buildings is primarily based on pure heat calculation that considers only heat transfer. Therefore, the heat transfer of a building envelope should be clarified under the action of periodic external disturbance circulation. In this study, four different climatic factors were selected for heat transfer simulation, including season, solar radiation, air temperature, and relative humidity. The results indicate that the outdoor relative humidity has a significant impact on the difference between coupled heat and moisture calculation and pure thermal calculation. This influence becomes evident in the cooling conditions in summer but weakens in the winter heating conditions. Accordingly, the meteorological data of 270 cities in China were statistically analyzed using Python programming language. The concept of “cooling high-humidity days” was proposed as a zoning indicator for coupled heat and humidity thermal calculation zoning. The coupled heat and moisture thermal calculation design zoning map of China is provided, which affords the specific calculation method in building thermal design.