Thermal performance of insulated metal panel systems

Abstract

A better energy efficiency of a building can be obtained by implementing passive and active energy efficient design strategies. The initial design phase starts with implementation of several passive strategies, i.e. strong thermally insulated building envelope, building’s orientation, windows placement, and building’s aspect ratio, window to wall ratio, use of thermal mass, natural lighting, shadings and other solutions. However, looking at how building are designed, built and operated nowadays, it can be observed that there is a growing necessity in implementing at a wider level energy efficient solution in order to obtain reduced energy consumptions and thus a sustainable built environment. Several typical constructive details used today are not able to reach the low U values imposed for obtaining nearly zero energy buildings, due to the thermal bridges that define their structure. An example is given by the insulated metal penal systems. Thus, the paper aims to analyse the thermal performance of insulated metal penal systems with the aim of obtaining energy saving for the entire building.