Thermal retrofits of existing buildings offer a great potential to reduce Europe's energy use and CO2 emissions. The impact of these retrofitting strategies on the risk for degradation in building envelopes is assessed through hygrothermal simulations. Due to the lack of long term climate data, hygrothermal simulations are performed for a certain location, and the results are generalised over a large region. However, this generalisation may not be valid, since the hygrothermal performance of building envelopes is highly influenced by local climate conditions. Therefore, we assessed the geographical variability on degradation risks in building envelopes. This paper presents the results of 34560 hygrothermal simulations of solid masonry walls, with and without interior insulation, and including a range of other parameter variations, for 20 synoptic weather stations across Belgium. Generally, the risk for degradation is higher at locations with a higher elevation above sea level. For Belgium, the elevation correlates well with the mean temperature (invers correlation), and the annual precipitation and wind-driven rain load. For a known wall orientation, the impact of interior insulation on the risk for freeze-thaw damage is most determined by the elevation above sea level. Also the mould index in uninsulated walls correlates best with the elevation. On the contrary, the brick type is more important than the location when considering wood decay of embedded beam heads in retrofitted walls. To conclude, the risk for degradation cannot be generalised, especially over areas with complex variations in orographic and climatological conditions.

中文翻译：

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比利时历史建筑围护结构内保温湿热模拟结果的地理变异性


现有建筑的热改造为减少欧洲的能源使用和二氧化碳排放提供了巨大的潜力。通过湿热模拟评估这些改造策略对建筑围护结构退化风险的影响。由于缺乏长期气候数据，对某个位置进行湿热模拟，结果在大片区域内推广。然而，这种概括可能无效，因为建筑围护结构的湿热性能受当地气候条件的高度影响。因此，我们评估了建筑围护结构退化风险的地理变异性。本文介绍了比利时 20 个天气气象站的 34560 次实心砌体墙（有和没有内部保温）的湿热模拟结果，并包括一系列其他参数变化。一般来说，海拔较高的地方降解的风险更高。对于比利时，海拔与平均温度 （反比相关） 以及年降水和风驱动的降雨负荷密切相关。对于已知的墙方向，内部保温对冻融损坏风险的影响主要取决于海拔高度。此外，非隔热墙体中的霉菌指数与标高最相关。相反，在考虑改造墙体中嵌入式梁头的木材腐烂时，砖类型比位置更重要。总而言之，退化的风险不能一概而论，尤其是在地形和气候条件变化复杂的地区。