Thermographic measurement of thermal bridges in buildings under dynamic behavior

The accurate knowledge of the thermal performance could reduce significantly the impact of buildings on global energy consumption. Infrared thermography is widely recognized as one of the key technologies for building surveys, thanks to its ability to acquire at a glance thermal images of the building envelope. However, a spot measurement could be misleading when the building is under dynamic thermal conditions. In this case data should be acquired for hours or days, depending on the thermal properties of the walls. Long term thermographic monitoring are possible but imply strong challenges from a practical standpoint. This work investigates the possibilities and limitations of spot thermographic surveys coupled with contact probes, that are able to acquire continuously the thermal signal for days, to investigate the thermal bridges of a building. The goal is the estimation of the reliability and accuracy of the measurement under realistic environmental conditions. Firstly, numerical simulations are performed to determine the reference value of an experimental case. Then a long term thermographic survey is performed and integrated with the contact probe measurement, assessing the feasibility of the method.