I am working on a project to replicate a historic tower. The walls need to be faced with brick. We think a cavity wall where solid brick facing is supported laterally with hollow clay brick makes the best structural solution. Metal ties connect the two layers. No insulation is to be used. This is an unheated tower. To be faithful to the original solid brick structure, about 20 feet square and 90 feet tall, we want no vertical control joints as are used in modern masonry wall construction. I need to be sure that thermal tensile stresses are well within acceptable limits to justify not using control joints.
I need to assess the level of thermal stress differences in the facing and backup walls. After looking at literature of building envelope walls, I find that much of the knowledge is directed at steady state heat flow to analyze for energy use. I don’t care about energy savings. I would like to get a snapshot of temperature level distributions in the two masonry layers so I can check the associated thermal volume change stresses to see if they lead to significant tension in the masonry.
My expertise is in structural mechanics. After looking through the literature, I see the problem requires an assessment of conduction, convection, solar radiation, thermal absorption, emission, thermal storage, time, and initial conditions. Is there an inexpensive thermal analysis program that would help get me extreme thermal distributions for such a problem? Are there some decent resources to read up on the problem? I want to be familiar enough with the thermal mechanics of the problem, so I can determine if I can trust the advice and answer the demands from other design team members.
I need to assess the level of thermal stress differences in the facing and backup walls. After looking at literature of building envelope walls, I find that much of the knowledge is directed at steady state heat flow to analyze for energy use. I don’t care about energy savings. I would like to get a snapshot of temperature level distributions in the two masonry layers so I can check the associated thermal volume change stresses to see if they lead to significant tension in the masonry.
My expertise is in structural mechanics. After looking through the literature, I see the problem requires an assessment of conduction, convection, solar radiation, thermal absorption, emission, thermal storage, time, and initial conditions. Is there an inexpensive thermal analysis program that would help get me extreme thermal distributions for such a problem? Are there some decent resources to read up on the problem? I want to be familiar enough with the thermal mechanics of the problem, so I can determine if I can trust the advice and answer the demands from other design team members.
