Estudo experimental de avaliação do desempenho térmico de edificação no sistema Wood-Frame frente a equivalente em alvenaria

Abstract

As part of a worldwide trend towards the usage of more sustainable alternatives to the civil construction sector, the Wood-Frame prefabricated construction system has gained increasing ground in the Brazilian market by invoking thermoacoustic, economic and marketing benefits compared to current construction techniques. In view of its growth, an experimental study was developed in order to evaluate if the Wood-Frame system presents a superior thermal performance to the masonry buildings in its conceptions most commonly used in Brazil and to numerically quantify the intensity of such difference. The construction of a reduced model of a Wood-Frame building and a masonry equivalent was carried out to, through the measurement of temperatures inside and outside of both, assess their performance and evaluate the presumptive and immediate effects that the prefabricated system in wood presents with respect to its thermal performance. It was observed that the Wood-Frame system reduced the maximum daily temperatures inside the reduced model by an average of 9.92 °C compared to the external environment, and 7.67 °C compared to the masonry model. In addition, the system presented an average daily thermal amplitude of 3.04 °C, while the masonry and external environment registered values of 7.08 °C and 12.17 °C. Finally, it was verified an increase in the characteristic thermal lag recorded by the Wood-Frame compared to the masonry model for the recording of both maximum and minimum daily temperatures. Although this study has a preliminary investigation character for being associated to a specific time cut whose temperatures were measured, the results obtained provided a better understanding of the environmental and economic associated benefits intrinsic to the buildings in the Wood-Frame system compared to those in masonry.