Heat storage and transmission rate in materials

[fostertom]

I want to brush up on theory I learned long ago, but have now forgotten, about heat storage and transmission rate in materials. We Architecture students were taught it at Bristol CAT (aka Bath University) School of Architecture and Building Technology in the late 60s and later I think my fellow BT student John Willoughby taught it at Cheltenham School of Architecture in the late 70s. I've kept my textbooks from both, but nothing about storage. Googled and Wiki'd but nothing much. Where should I start?

[Mark Siddall]

Tom,
The book "Introduction to Architectural Science: The Basis of Sustainable Design" by Steven Szokolay (see Books list on this website) has a section that looks at U-values, thermal mass, admittance and decrement delay. The information was well presented and found to be informative. There are also some useful work sheets at the back that help to pad out the calculation side of things. As an architect I found that it to be a excellent primer (other that energy/comfort the book also looks at other aspects of environmental science including lighting and acoustics).
Finally the book makes reference to CIBSE guidance on calculations, so if your looking for even more technical stuff you could look into the relevant Guides that CIBSE have on offer (Guide A?).

Mark
 

[Adam Claridge]

I tried Wikipedia "thermal mass" which gives some of the basic tenets of building thermal mass into buildings.  It also refers to the following link http://www.ornl.gov/sci/roofs+walls/research/detailed_papers/thermal/index.html which is a paper, albeit from the USA, going into some of the pros and cons.  Having had a brief glance the paper seems to cocentrate on heavy/massive thermal mass materials (concrete, stone, etc) and of course we know that some other materials of lighter weight (eg cellulose) can have relatively high thermal mass too.

[Mark Siddall]

Another book that looks at thermal mass and decrement/time delay is Solar Architecture in Cool Climates. The book is a great source of other real world case studies also. See the following link for more detail: http://www.aecb.net/forum/index.php?topic=97.msg3185#new

Mark

[Mark Siddall]

"Climate Considerations in Building and Urban Design" by Baruch Givoni also has some interesting bits and bobs on thermal mass. I haven't read the book in detail but I didn't get the impression that it quite covers all that you are looking for Tom. Another good read if you can get your hands on a copy is "The Passive Solar Energy Book: A Complete Guide to Passive Solar Home, Greenhouse and Building Design" by Ed Mazria (rules of thumb for getting the most out of thermal mass amongst other things).

Mark