Thermal analysis of hollow clay bricks submitted to a sinusoidal heating

Abstract

Abstract The aim of the present work is to study numerically, in a transient state, the thermal behavior of three types of hollow bricks mostly used in the construction of building walls in Morocco. The coupled heat transfer by conduction through the surrounding walls, natural convection and surface radiation is taken into account. The outside vertical surface is submitted to a sinusoidal thermal excitation, while the inside vertical surface is maintained at a constant temperature. The top and bottom horizontal sides are assumed to be adiabatic. The governing equations for conservation of mass, momentum and energy are discretized by the finite volume approach and solved by the SIMPLE algorithm. The main parameters governing the problem are the amplitude, the period of the exciting temperature and the emissivity of the walls. The effect of these parameters on the global heat transfer through each structure is presented and examined. The results report that the hollow brick of type 3 allows a good reduction of heat transfer from exterior to interior surfaces of the building walls and hence providing an adequate thermal comfort. The emissivity of the internal surfaces affect considerably the heat transfer through the hollow bricks. The use of low emissivity materials on internal surfaces of the hollow bricks would greatly help in improving the energy consumption in buildings.