Conventional sandwich panels are one of the cheapest and easiest solutions for forming the thermal building envelope of industrial buildings. They are pre-fabricated façade elements, of which millions of square meters have been produced and mounted every year.
There is great potential to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels and CO2 emissions through the solar thermal activation of such a sandwich panel. In the course of the research project ABS-Network SIAT 125, a Solar Thermal Activated Façade (STAF) panel was designed
which is to be optimized both thermally and structurally. This study shows the first version of a so-called ‘one way coupled’ thermal and structural analysis of a conventional sandwich panel compared to the STAF panel. For this purpose, the numerical methods of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and Finite Element Method (FEM) are used together in one simulation environment. Furthermore, results from an outdoor test facility are presented where the first version of a STAF panel is tested under real climate conditions. The CFD
model was positively evaluated by comparing measured and computed temperatures.