Equivalent slabs approach to simulate the thermal performance of thermal bridges in building constructions

 In the paper, Equivalent Slabs approach is presented to compute thermal bridges in building constructions properly and quickly. The heat transfer of thermal bridges is decomposed into the heat transfer process influenced by outdoor temperature, indoor temperature and adjacent room temperature separately. 2+n (n is the number of adjacent rooms related to the thermal bridge) Equivalent Slabs are obtained to replace a thermal bridge to solve its 2+n heat transfer processes. The heat fluxes from Equivalent Slabs to room under unsteady boundary conditions are validated by Finite Difference Method. The results are simple and easy to be implemented into building energy simulation software. The computation time of such method is much shorter  compared with existing methods.