A Review on Thermal Insulation Systems in Building Envelopes

Abstract

The global temperature has been increasing day by day as a consequence of urbanization and other man-made activities. There should be a consideration about energy consumption which leads to the development for new alternatives. Phase changing materials is a solution for regulating the temperature inside the building. The property of a PCM is that it absorbs heat when the temperature is high and at the same time liberates heat when temperature is low. Already there are lots of experiments and materials associated with PCM that had led to lot of inventions in construction field. PCM imparts thermal insulation property which reduces the temperature inside the room when compared to normal atmospheric temperature. Buildings are large consumers of energy worldwide. Energy saving being the most recent need, development of materials for thermal insulation systems is necessary. However conventional building materials like concrete being the major building material do not have a thermal insulation capability.  This paper aims to study thermal properties of different thermal insulation materials. Thermal insulation in building are done using various types of materials in the form of loose fill, hard boards, foam structures and so on. During selection of insulating materials its availability and its thermal properties such as thermal conductivity, specific heat capacity and thermal diffusivity should be considered