Thermal inertia mass of building envelopes design to be adapted to a local climate

This work is based on an extended research from a doctorate thesis developed in a partnership between Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) in Brazil and INSA of Lyon, Thermal Centre of Lyon, Building Physics Team (CETHIL/ETB) in France. The purpose is to examine the envelope building design considering the outside microclimate to achieve a comfortable indoor climate. The context of exterior climatic features and site location are considered, taking in account an indoor discomfort sequence over a typical warm season. In order to the complexity of architectural design, when we must evaluate a large number of parameters and indoor requirements, the focus of this work is the thermal inertia mass in building envelopes. We take into account that the mass of envelopes can characterize a monitoring approach to achieve a thermal comfort. The method includes an evaluation of a re-use referential design of traditional existing buildings, taking the individual parameters such as activity levels and clothing isolation, and indoor environmental variables, such as: ambient air temperature, mean radiant temperature, relative air humidity and indoor airflow. In order to obtain the thermal performance data, we have carried out dynamical simulations, regrouping several variations of the inertia mass of envelopes, from architectural choices. The obtained results can generate a simplified method dedicated to the actors of the building design team (architects, engineers, technical designers) to orient the use of envelopes to achieve a good indoor thermal comfort for occupants, integrating local climatic characteristics.