|
Should you fully insulate
under concrete slabs on or below grade?
Below grade comparison
Downward heat loss
tools
Below are still images from an FEA animation of
annual transient soil temperatures around a basement in Calgary,
Alberta. We developed this animation for educational purposes to
illustrate the dynamics of thermal loading on the various
elements of below grade structures at various elevations around
the foundation.
Wolfram CFD soil
temperature interactive demonstration tool
Kehrer, M., Pallin, S.
Hygrothermal Material Properties for Soils in Building Science,
Journal of the National Institute of Building Sciences. October,
2013.
|
Calculating downward
heat loss - design tools
Copyright (c) 2012, Robert Bean and
www.healthyheating.com
For additional
support visit our
visitor services page. |
|
Calculating the downward loss from a slab
on grade or below grade slab is both an art and a
science. There are several accepted manual methods in
various publications including the ASHRAE Handbooks.
These manual methods though good, do not reflect the
dynamics which occur for slabs particularly if the slabs
are cooled and heated.
Three tools that we use are CANMET's 'BASECalc' tool for basement heat loss,
BLOCON's 'Slab' for slab on grade heat loss and PDE
Solutions 'FlexPDE' for detailed modeling. All programs
can do steady state or transient calculations. Only the
FlexPDE provides a thorough analysis of heated and
cooled slabs. We provide some screen shots of the
various tools below. |
|
|
|
CANMET's BASECalc Tool for below grade
basements |
|
|
BLOCON's Slab Tool for slab on grade
construction |
|
|
PDE Soultions FlexPDE for detailed
analysis of below grade heated slabs |
|
PDE Soultions FlexPDE for detailed
analysis of below grade heated walls |
|
PDE Soultions FlexPDE for detailed
analysis of on grade heated slabs |
|
