There is a constant demand for improving wood-frame exterior wall assemblies currently used in North American residential construction. This demand is the consequence of the availability of new building products, requirements to improve performance, exports to countries with different climates or performance requirements, etc. This paper presents the development of a multicriteria framework aiming to support the evaluation of improved factory-built wood-frame exterior walls. The multi-criteria model in development seeks to simultaneously consider several wall performance criteria that so far have been studied and optimized independently. Structural integrity, moisture transfer, durability, thermal performance, energy efficiency, sound insulation and environmental impacts are the main criteria included in this analysis. This paper summarizes the level of knowledge and design methods related to each criterion, as well as some interactions between these criteria. It also presents the development of the multi-criteria tool, highlighting the impact of each component on the overall assembly performance. Analytical methods that may be used to quantify these impacts in order to enable a comparison of the global performance of the different wall assemblies are presented. Finally, the added value of the tool is presented with a case example demonstrating how the selection of the assembly components affects the criteria evaluation.

Presented at Thermal Performance of Exterior Envelopes of Whole Buildings X – December 2007

Units: Dual