ABSTRACT
Increasing the thermal resistance of masonry exterior walls can reduce the buildings’ energy consumption. Different challenges have been confronted with implementing the relevant changes to the design of these masonry walls. One of them is the thermal bridging, which occurs typically in places where highly conductive structural components penetrate insulating materials. Another challenge is to estimate the effective thermal resistance with sufficient accuracy. A survey of the literature conducted here identifies the major technical and practical challenges, the corresponding advancements, and the important influencing factors on the thermal performance of masonry walls. It will summarize the state of the thermal performance design and evaluation of masonry walls. The paper will also focus on how overall R-values are obtained using numerical calculations and computer simulation, and experimental measurements.
