Building Envelope and Non-Destructive Techniques

The energy retrofit of the building stock is a central topic in Europe, due to the need reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. However, there is a lack of knowledge about the real behavior of the building envelope, due to a lack of information about its component materials and their thermal transmittance value. To increase the knowledge of thermo-hygrometric characteristics of walls, this research proposes an operational methodology to identify reliable thermal transmittance values by applying Non-Destructive Testings (NTD). Through the validation on a case study, the comparison of different methods identified as compatible with the existing building stock was carried out, in particular the Heat Flow Meter method (HFM) and the Quantitative Infrared Thermography (QIRT). The results show the critical issues involved in the execution of each of these techniques, and the potentiality of their combined use to optimise critical situations and adapt to specific cases. The aim is to get to know the real behaviour of the structures, to propose well-considered and effective design choices in the subsequent energy retrofit intervention.