Structural member for use in an insulated assembly between two building structures
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing structural members in building connections often act as thermal bridges, conducting heat readily between inner and outer building walls, compromising insulation and structural integrity, while attempts to introduce insulating gaps or slots result in lines of weakness that complicate folding and reduce structural strength.
Innovation Solution
A structural member with a web portion and non-parallel, non-linear slots that span across the temperature gradient direction, providing a thermal break while maintaining structural strength through material bridges, reducing heat transfer and minimizing longitudinal weaknesses.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of energy
If gaps and slots are introduced in structural members to reduce heat transfer, then thermal insulation is improved, but structural strength deteriorates due to lines of weakness
Solution Approach 1:
The web portion is segmented into multiple sections by slots that divide it transverse to the longitudinal direction. This segmentation creates multiple small air gaps that collectively provide thermal insulation while the remaining material sections maintain structural continuity and strength.
Solution Approach 2:
The slots are positioned to create local variations in thermal conductivity across the web portion, with insulating air gaps at specific locations while maintaining solid material in other areas to preserve overall structural integrity.
2Loss of energy
If slots are introduced in sheet metal structural members, then thermal insulation is improved, but ease of manufacture deteriorates due to folding difficulties
Solution Approach 1:
The slots are positioned away from the longitudinal edges of the web portion, creating local insulating zones without interfering with the edge regions that require folding for structural assembly. This localized slot placement enables both thermal insulation and manufacturability.
3Strength
If structural elements are added between inner and outer walls to maintain structural integrity, then structural strength is improved, but heat transfer increases due to thermal bridge effect
Solution Approach 1:
The structural member's web portion is segmented by transverse slots that create multiple air gaps, breaking the continuous thermal conduction path while preserving the member's load-bearing capacity through the remaining solid sections.
Solution Approach 2:
The structural member combines solid material sections with air gap sections, creating a composite structure that leverages the high strength of solid material and the low thermal conductivity of air to achieve both structural integrity and thermal insulation.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution significantly reduces heat transfer across the structural member, enhancing thermal insulation by over 900% while maintaining structural integrity and preventing undesirable bending during folding, by creating a convoluted heat transfer path and minimizing lines of weakness.
Implementation Method 1
the slots being oriented primarily non-parallel to the first and second edges of the web portion... significantly reduces heat transfer across the structural member, enhancing thermal insulation by over 900%
Data Source
AI summary
A structural member acts for distance keeping, stiffening and load-supporting structural framing between a first building structure and a second building structure across which there exists a temperature differential, for example the inner and outer casings of an air handling unit supported externally of the building so as to be exposed to outdoor weather. The structural member has a web portion spanning between mounting portions connecting opposing first and second edges of the web portion to the first and second building structures respectively. A plurality of slots are penetrated through the web portion at spaced apart locations relative to one another to be primarily non-parallel to the first and second edges. Some of the material bridges between the slots require heat transfer across the bridge to travel opposite to the direction of the temperature gradient direction.