Assessment of equivalent thermal properties of multilayer building walls coupling simulations and experimental measurements

The paper aims to verify if an equivalent homogeneous wall can be associated to a multilayer wall in the sense of producing the same behavior if exposed to the same outdoor environmental conditions. Findings in literature demonstrate that, generally, this is not exactly achievable. However, the possibility of an approximate equivalence is investigated in this work by means of finite-element simulations and experimental measurements. The results obtained in actual case studies show that this equivalence can be made, obtaining preliminary satisfying results. The proposed methodology can be employed in existing and historical buildings to achieve useful equivalent data directly applicable for the energy retrofit phase and for achieving a better coupling between the building and the heating/cooling system, reducing environmental impacts.