Advanced On-Site Diagnostics for Thermal Envelope Assessment in Existing Buildings
Accurate knowledge of the thermal envelope and its physical characteristics is essential for reliable building energy performance assessment. In existing buildings, limited information regarding construction details and hidden defects often leads to significant discrepancies between simulated and actual energy performance. This performance gap undermines retrofit planning, increases operational costs, and hinders carbon reduction efforts, highlighting the urgent need for improved on-site diagnostic methods.
Role of Envelope Uncertainty in the Performance Gap
Insufficient data on airtightness, insulation continuity, and thermal bridging directly affects the accuracy of building energy models. These uncertainties make it difficult to evaluate retrofit options reliably and often result in conservative or inefficient interventions. Addressing envelope-related unknowns is therefore critical for cost-effective and performance-driven retrofit strategies.
Acoustic Air Leakage Detection Methodology
The study investigates acoustic air leakage detection as an innovative technique for evaluating airtightness in large-scale buildings. Experimental results demonstrate that the method can qualitatively distinguish variations in envelope airtightness across building zones. However, limitations related to automation, spatial resolution, and quantitative accuracy restrict its applicability for precise energy modeling and standardized assessments.
UAV-Based Quantitative Infrared Thermography
A second diagnostic approach involves drone-based infrared thermography with repeated nocturnal scans to capture dynamic thermal behavior of the building envelope. This method shows strong potential for large-scale thermal assessment by identifying heat loss patterns, insulation defects, and thermal bridges. Nevertheless, challenges remain related to high equipment costs, accurate image alignment, and integration of thermal data into three-dimensional building models.
Environmental and Operational Sources of Uncertainty
The reliability of UAV-based thermography is influenced by external factors such as wind speed, ambient temperature gradients, atmospheric conditions, and drone-induced airflow disturbances. These factors introduce uncertainties that complicate the quantitative interpretation of thermal data, limiting its direct application in performance evaluation without advanced correction and calibration techniques.
Future Directions for Integrated Performance Assessment
The findings highlight the necessity for improved calibration protocols, advanced data processing algorithms, and seamless integration of on-site measurements with dynamic building performance simulation tools. Despite current limitations, acoustic leakage detection and UAV-based thermography demonstrate strong potential for automating large-scale envelope diagnostics, offering promising pathways toward more accurate and scalable energy performance assessments in future research.
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