EFFECTS OF HEAT CONDUCTION BETWEEN WINDOW FRAMES AND BUILDING WALLS ON THE THERMAL PERFORMANCE OF A BUILDING

When the thermal performance of a building is evaluated, a common method is to handle window frames and building walls as independent parts respectively, and successively to summate the thermal performance of each part through putting weight on the area. This method presumes that there is no heat transfer between the parts neighboring with each other. However, in a real building, heat transfer exists at the parts connecting window frames and building walls. In this report, heat transfer was calculated through numerical method on several typical combinations between window frames and building walls, and the effects of the obtained values on the thermal performance of a building were confirmed. As a result, it was confirmed that heat flow was not small between a window wall and a building frame at the window frame structure made of aluminum or aluminum-plastic composite, which increased the heat loss of a building by about 5% at a maximum.