Caratterizzazione di componenti speciali dell'involucro edilizio

In last decades, environmental aspects and in particular energy consumptions related to whole building life cycle have become an important field of research both at institutional level and in the discussions of a public opinion which is increasingly sensible to these aspects. This research study aims to investigate thermophysical behaviour of Living Walls, a new kind of vertical green cladding installed on external facades of building envelope. In the first chapter, the state of the art of the international research panorama on vertical greenery and in particular on Living Walls is proposed. What comes out from the research is that many aspects of this particular kind of green cladding are actually object of study and in this context new sperimental and theoretical informations and evaluations are needed. In the second chapter two of the most important kinds of green claddings are presented and in the third chapter heat transmission theory is analysed and focused on Living Wall behaviour. Others specific phenomenon and features typical of green claddings, such as evapotranspiration and Leaf Area Index, have been analysed. Results of two monitoring campaigns are presented in the fourth chapter. These field measurements have been performed on two prototypes of Living Walls, made available during the research period. Interactions between the cladding and the back wall in terms of surface temperatures and heat fluxes are presented. In the fifth chapter, a numerical model, which aims to reproduce the energetic behaviour of the two monitored green claddings, is developed and validated against field measurements. In the subsequent chapter a sensitivity analysis is performed on the mathematical model considering the most important variables. In the last chapter the U-Value calculation, for a facade with a Living Wall installed on, is proposed. The calculation is performed by means of the numerical model proposed in the fifth chapter and results are compared to those achievable by means of actual regulations. In Appendix A, the VBA code of the numerical model, developed in the fifth chapter, is entirely reported