Development of an Optimization Tool for Wall-Insulation Systems with a Focus on Fire Safety

The whole (or holistic) building design approach is important for sustainability and fire safety. It is, however, challenging to design a building holistically due to it requiring a designer to take into account various design factors and their effects on multiple performances. It is very difficult to do such a design without a proper design tool. This study proposes a performance-based, multi-characteristic optimization tool for a wall-insulation system. The wall-insulation system of a building has multiple performance objectives, such as energy-saving, fire safety, soundproofing, sustainability, and cost. The tool quantifies the performance values of the five objectives and identifies the best combination of sheathing layers and insulation materials based on the quantified performance value. This tool also addresses an issue of the current insulation system design approach in the building code, by proposing a performance-based design approach for a thermal barrier design. The tool is expected to assist architects or building designers in comparing various wall-insulation systems.