A scoping review of non-destructive testing (NDT) techniques in building performance diagnostic inspections

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2020.120542Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) techniques can be utilized to conduct envelope diagnostics for standardized energy audits.

  • Six NDT techniques are analyzed for their compatibility with building envelope auditing.

  • A tool was developed and is presented to identify hybrid workflows between different NDT techniques.

  • Hybrid workflows can be created between different NDT techniques to conduct standard envelope energy audits.

Abstract

Understanding building envelope thermodynamics is an essential foundation of building sciences, mainly due to the envelope’s role as a boundary layer for exterior environments, as well as a container and regulator of internal microclimates. This paper presents a scoping literature review of select Non-destructive Testing (NDT) techniques for building envelope scanning and surveying for thermodynamic diagnostics. The investigation focuses specifically on reviewing six NDT techniques: Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR)/Laser Scanning, Thermography, Ultrasound, Close-Range Photogrammetry and Through Wall Imaging Radar (TWIR). The aim is to identify knowledge gaps in terms of their use in accurately characterizing envelope compositions for further integration in Building Energy Modeling (BEM). Each technique was evaluated according to set categories imbibed from the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air Conditioning Engineering (ASHRAE) Standard 211P that showcase the technique’s ability to extract various relevant information. A framework is then developed to inform users on how to use hybrid NDT-based workflows applied in building envelope energy audits. The paper concludes by discussing possibilities of utilizing NDT in large-scale audit automation, BEM integration, and developing built environment policies focusing on increasing existing building performance through retrofitting design.

Introduction

One of the biggest challenges facing the built environment is its substantial impact on climate change and the energy sector. Almost two-thirds of electricity (76%) and 40% of total energy consumption in the United States is consumed by buildings [1]. This puts the onus on designers, builders, contractors, and all other professionals that work in the building sector to find immediate and effective solutions to decrease this consumption and help combat the ever-growing threat of climate change. One avenue to achieve substantial carbon reductions is by diagnosing existing building stocks through energy audits. Energy audits allow for the quantification and optimization of individual building performance at an isolated level and can also expand to urban scale analysis of neighborhoods and districts. The identification of building envelope component performance is critical for a comprehensive energy audit [2]. Built wall components are traditionally examined through visual inspection or collection of samples [3]. This entails a labor-intensive, time-consuming, and costly destructive process of disassembly or drilling to be able to extract samples from the different layers of the wall [4]. To be comprehensive, this process must be repeated at different discrete sections of a wall, and when repeated continuously may cause permanent damage to the inspected surface. As the need to enhance and streamline building energy retrofits is evident for application on a wide scale, the question that presents itself is: how can built environment professionals inspect, assess, and document building envelopes using fast, low cost, and nondestructive means?

Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) can provide a useful tool to extract information from buildings, which would aid researchers and building scientists in performing building audits for various applications. An NDT technique that can identify wall components can support averting the physical damage resulting from traditional sample collection processes [5], and thus, can benefit users greatly in the documentation phase. These techniques include photogrammetry, laser scanning, Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), and thermography, which have been utilized in different applications [6]. Some of these techniques benefit from the fact that they do not necessarily require contact with the surface that is under inspection, while other contact-based NDT techniques can be utilized to further refine models built by remote techniques, by allowing a higher detail of subsurface inspection for a more accurate result [6]. Therefore, identifying the strengths and weaknesses of current NDT techniques and the compatibility of hybrid workflows may prevent inadequate use that could prove costly for any decisions built on inaccurate readings. This may also maximize the positive effect of those built on accurate ones [3].

This paper reviews the literature on various NDT techniques that are currently in use and develops a tool to organize this literature into nondestructive workflows for building façade audit purposes. Reviewing and assessing the strengths and limitations of each tool for performing audits on building envelopes becomes an essential reference to identify workflows that would help articulate a framework for large-scale building envelope assessment and retrofits.

Section snippets

Literature review methodology

This literature review aims to study existing research on NDT applications and identify gaps regarding their application in building envelope component identification. The goal of the paper is to create a cohesive tool that indicates the appropriateness of each NDT technique in the context of different categories related to building audits. These categories were imbibed from ASHRAE’s Standard 211P for Commercial Building Audits. This standard puts the building envelope in the scope of energy

Infrared thermography (IRT)

IRT is a technique that measures the emitted and reflected infrared radiation from a target surface or object, and consequently, displays this image as a spectrum. It has been utilized as a technique to assess the condition of building envelopes and identify invisible defects. This technique offers the benefit of being remote and can be used from a distance of few millimeters to several kilometers and can identify one-dimensional heat flux sensing and emissivity [10]. In buildings, thermography

Discussion and conclusion

In order to facilitate cohesive building envelope energy audits using the categories identified in this work, the identification of hybrid workflows that can amalgamate the NDT techniques is needed. Standard 211P does not explicitly identify the procedures required to extract the needed information, and this research bridges the gap between the information required and how to gather it. What remains is to identify different workflows where the required information regarding the envelope can be

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgement

This publication is based on work funded in part by the United States Department of Energy (Award #DE-EE0008680.0000).

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