Assessment of the thermal comfort of a masonry building - numerical study

Abstract

The need to preserve masonry buildings in earthquake-prone areas leads to the analysis of their behavior when subjected to seismic actions. When studying different strengthening solutions, it is important to reassess the behavior of the building that has been reinforced regarding its initial resistance performance. In parallel, energy studies should be carried out to understand if the reinforcement solution being proposed is favorable to the building’s energy efficiency and if it affects the occupant’s thermal comfort. The focus of this study is a masonry building located in Lisbon, consisting of four thermal zones. The goal is to verify the thermal efficiency of an integrated seismic and energy retrofit applied to a masonry building, regarding the thermal comfort sensed by the buildings’ occupants. Numerical simulations were performed with EnergyPlus^® software to obtain results of PMV, taking into account the effect of cork insulation in winter and summer days. Results show that the effect of cork insulation on PMV values is more noticeable in the summer season, increasing the number of comfort hours of the building.