CivE 779B

Fundamentals of Building Science

Description

The fundamentals of building science, mainly the basic concepts and applications of heat and mass (moisture and air) transfer in a built environment, will be covered in this course. Exterior and interior influences on the interior environmental qualities (temperature and relative humidity) will be considered. Topics include: heat, air and moisture transfer, vapour flow, air leakage, ventilation and indoor comfort conditions, selection of building materials and systems. By taking this course, students will be able to understand the fundamentals of building engineering, analyze and simulate the indoor environmental qualities of buildings, and apply the knowledge for better building design and operation.

Learning Outcomes

Be able to apply numerical methods to calculate 1D steady-state or transient heat transfer in building components
Apply the theories of vapor diffusion to analyze 1D steady-state vapor diffusion in building assemblies
Evaluate the hydrothermal properties of opaque building assemblies, and select proper designs for given building conditions
Determine the psychometric conditions of an indoor space for different climatic and building operational conditions
Interpret the movement of the sun relative to a building and calculate the solar radiation incident on a given surface at a given time
Calculate the thermal and optical properties of windows, and select the proper designs for a given climate
Interpret the metrics of occupant thermal comfort and evaluate the thermal comfort conditions in a given room
Perform simple whole-building performance simulations

• Details
• Pre-Requisites
• Co-Requisites
• GA - Graduate Attributes
• Course Files

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Undergraduate Program(s)

Sections & Respective Instructors

A5 - 2025/2026 - Fall - Yuxiang Chen

A3 - 2024/2025 - Fall - Yuxiang Chen

A3 - 2023/2024 - Fall - Yuxiang Chen

A3 - 2020/2021 - Fall - Yuxiang Chen