Heat Diffusion in Klinker Facade: The Study Case of a Gio Ponti Building

Abstract

The researchers focus on the IRT procedure of heat diffusion in ceramic finishing materials of contemporary architecture. The aim of the research is the development of a method for the thermal characterization of clinkers, a very common ceramic finishing material of buildings. The first experimental phase was performed in laboratory on clinkers of different shapes, thickness, colors, and glazing surface. The researchers determined two characteristic parameters related to thickness and thermal conductivity, by the interpolation of the heating curve in function of time with an analytical curve (resulted from a particular solution of Fourier’s equation). This curve allows to obtain a parameter characteristic of the material of the specimens under investigation. At present time, the researchers have been studying the correlation between this parameter and the damage level in the specimens; they will be testing the model on real-scale study cases in the second experimental phase.

Evaluation of Moisture Transfer to Improve the Conservation of Tiles Finishing Facades

“…The use of IRT can be at transient or steady-state conditions: in the case of adhesion problems, it is fundamental to create a temperature transitory to visualize the map of the state of adhesion on the façade (Caglio et al 2011;Ludwig et al 2012). With this procedure, it is possible to evaluate a thermal gradient between sound and detached areas.…”