Mihaela Maslać’s scientific contributions

Thermal bridges have a significant impact on the energy efficiency of buildings, but their accurate assessment remains a challenge. In this paper, a novel method for estimating the Ψ-values of thermal bridges and their contribution to the transmission heat losses (Htr,TB) is proposed to solve this problem. The proposed method involves calculating the total heat flux across the building cross-sections and subtracting the 1D heat flux of the individual components to derive the Ψ-values. Horizontal and vertical cross-sections are extracted from a 3D BIM (Building Information Modelling) model in Archicad. Numerical simulations are carried out on these cross-sections, which represent the entire building envelope. The method was validated on two buildings: a simple building and a complex multi-part building. The results show that with only three cross-sections (one horizontal and two vertical) Htr,TB can be estimated with less than 2 % error compared to the standard numerical analysis method defined in EN ISO 10211, where each thermal bridge is calculated individually. The proposed method is faster and eliminates the need for manual identification and measurement of thermal bridges. This simplified approach achieves equivalent accuracy and is particularly beneficial for smaller projects. The study emphasises the potential of using BIM tools for practical, efficient thermal bridge analysis.