Influence of climatic factors on thermal performance of wall panels

The energy efficiency of buildings is one of the key factors affecting the comfort of occupants during operation, so it is very important to understand whether building materials will retain their thermal performance characteristics during their entire life cycle. The object of research is thermal performance of wall panels of modular buildings and structures. This work aims to test wall panels in a climatic chamber, compare the obtained thermal performance with initial values and draw conclusions. Method. Experimental method involves testing the exposure of a wall panel sample to climatic factors for a design time and measuring the thermal characteristics of the sample before and after exposure. Results. After exposure of the sample to climatic factors, thermal conductivity increased from 0.037 W/m·K to 0.04 W/m·K by 8%, and heat transfer resistance decreased from 2.76 to 2.67 m²·K/W by 3%. The changes could be related to various factors that occurred during the climatic tests, such as: moisture absorption and structural degradation. Climatic tests show that the thermal insulation properties of mineral wool deteriorate under certain environmental conditions, resulting in an increase in thermal conductivity and a decrease in heat transfer resistance.