Numerical analysis to identify the quantity of heat flow through building floor with outer horizontal edge insulation

Heat loss or gain of the buildings through contact with the ground is an important factor of the efficiency of the process of designing the building. This factor has a powerful influence in the demand for energy, particularly in residential buildings or large business. This is because they rely heavily on mechanical cooling or heating. Numerical simulation was undertaken to determine the optimal size of outer horizontal insulation for the building floor under different operational parameters on the total heat loss from the building. This configuration is to lay a layer of insulation horizontally at the ground level starting from the building wall and running on the outside direction away from the building. The length of this insulation in normalized form is D3. The reduction in heat flow through the building ground is studied at different weather conditions of minimum and maximum convection effects both internally and externally with minimum and maximum outside temperatures. The reduction in heat flow increases almost linearly with D3 for all Θ_∞,o. The effect of Θ_∞,o seems to very small. The percentage of reduction exceeds 50% in as insulation length D3 less than 0.1. After that the percentage of reduction increases nearly linearly with the insulation length D3. To see the effect of the insulation D3 on the temperature distribution in the ground, the temperature θ(X, Y) is presented in the form of contour lines in figures. These figures generally show that the presence of insulation reduces the concentration of the contour lines, which means a reduction in the temperature gradient and consequently a reduction in the heat flow.