Assessment of thermal bridges effect on energy performance and condensation risk in buildings using DoE and RSM methods

Energy performance of buildings, assessed along design stage or rehabilitation phases during service life, is directly influenced by the manner thermal bridges are approached, being that their unavoidable presence in structures affects the risk of surface condensation and the level of thermal comfort. A realistic evaluation of these responses depends on the accuracy of estimate for thermal bridges share in heat loss. The assessment method recommended by European regulations and implemented through national regulations in Romania, uses linear and point thermal transmittances and temperature factors. The broad variety of building details leads to a large typology of thermal bridges, with unattainable coverage through catalogues with precalculated values. This paper contributes to the efforts of expressing mathematical relations for calculation of linear thermal transmittances and temperature factors, for the main types of thermal bridges. For this purpose, a method applied previously to similar problems has...