Metal stud wall systems -- Thermal disaster, or modern wall systems with highly efficient thermal insulation?
- Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States). Buildings Technology Center
Because steel has higher thermal conductivity than wood and intense heat transfer occurs through the metal wall components, thermal performances of a metal stud wall are significantly lower than for similar wood stud walls. A reduction of the in-cavity R-value caused by the wood studs is about 10% in wood stud walls. That is why metal stud walls are believed to be considerably less thermally effective than similar made of wood. However, properly designed metal stud walls can be as thermally effective as wood stud walls. Relatively high R-values may be achieved by installing insulating sheathing, which is widely used as a remedy for a weak thermal performance of metal stud walls. A series of the promising metal stud wall configurations is analyzed using results of finite difference computer modeling and guarded hotbox tests. Some of these walls were designed and tested in the ORNL Building Technology Center, some were tested in other laboratories, and some walls were developed and forgotten long time ago. Also, a novel concept of combined foam-metal studs is considered. The main aim of the present paper is to prove that it is possible to build metal stud walls which perform as well as wood stud walls. The key lies in designing; metal stud wall systems have to be treated in a special way with particular consideration to the high thermal conduction of metal components. In the discussed collection of the efficient metal stud wall configurations, reductions of the in-cavity R-value caused by metal studs are between 10 and 20%.
- OSTI ID:
- 543450
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-970582-; TRN: IM9748%%62
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 3. Insulation materials: testing and applications, Quebec City (Canada), 15-17 May 1997; Other Information: PBD: 1997; Related Information: Is Part Of Insulation materials: Testing and applications. Third volume; Graves, R.S. [ed.] [R and D Services, Inc., Lenoir City, TN (United States)]; Zarr, R.R. [ed.] [National Inst. of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD (United States)]; PB: [550] p.; ASTM special technical publication 1320
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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