ZEMCH 2019 International Conference Proceedings April.2020 | Page 27
1. Introduction
The construction sector in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a leading economic sector that has
garnered global interest regarding the quality and energy impacts of the resulting buildings. Abu Dhabi,
the largest emirate, contributes up to 22% of active projects and 38% of the total value of projects [1].
The Abu Dhabi region occupies the first position in terms of the number of constructed buildings in the
UAE [2]. Moreover, in the same emirate, around 80% of electricity consumption is attributed to
buildings alone [3]. At the national level, the dominant sector is the residential market, mainly in the
form of extensive government‐sponsored housing programs and large privately‐developed rental
developments. Within the residential sector a significant amount includes newly constructed
detached houses, amounting to about 65% of the urban fabric according to the National Statistics Center
[4]. As a consequence of this tremendous, rapid and disproportionate development, the construction
industry is the greatest contributor to the UAE high ecological footprint.
The central government has acknowledged the issue and introduced several energy conservation
measures and control procedures, such as Estidama, the local green building rating system and Green
Building Regulation, as an attempt to limit the energy consumption in buildings and reduce its
environmental impacts. For example, in Dubai, Green Building Regulations limit U‐values for the
roof and walls to a maximum of 0.3 W/m2 K and 0.57 W/m2 K respectively. While in Abu Dhabi, the
Estidama PEARL code prescribes (at its lowest rating) maxima for roof and wall U‐values of 0.14
W/m2K, and 0.32 W/m2 K respectively [5]. Recently, in 2017, the Ministry of Energy introduced
political feasibility of policy options for the country’s Energy Transition. It announced a new UAE
Energy Strategy 2050 that outlines a number of energy targets for 2050 including: Energy Efficiency
targeting a forty‐percent improvement relative to the current annual growth in electricity. Additionally,
it targets increased implementation of Energy Efficiency (EE) standards with monitored building
performance and audits to achieve greater EE technology adoption and demand site management [6].
The various regulations put in place by national and local agencies point to one area that requires
improvement and remediation: that of construction processes and quality. In effect, the effect of
workmanship quality on overall building energy performance is gaining increasing attention due to its
unexpected impacts on the built environment. Mostly, workmanship errors that are encountered
during construction affect the thermal performance of buildings [7]. Researches have shown that
building envelopes contribute to more than 50% of the embodied energy distribution in major building
elements in residential buildings; it also contributes to approximately 50–60% of the total heat gain in
buildings [8]. With this data in hand, one can state that building defects are the main contributors to
thermal leakage within the building’s envelope during its lifetime, thus the importance of analyzing
and assessing envelope elements at an early stage of construction. The aim of this paper is to identify
various construction defects in the building’s envelope during the construction phase in residential
buildings via thermal imagery audit of the thermal integrity of the building’s envelope.
2. Methodology and Case Study
2.1 Thermal imaging and building envelope
Thermal infrared imaging is an innovative tool utilized to perform non‐destructive qualitative and
quantitative tests through building envelope investigation, and identify various building defects that
contribute to the energy loss [9]. It is used to obtain empirical data for the actual thermal bridging
performance. The application of thermography at various phases of the construction process has
emerged from field tests on housing projects in Wales, UK [10]. The scope for four types of “in‐
construction” tests was identified in: (a) early stage checks on the installation of insulation, (b)
identifying air leakage through the building envelope, (c) assessing insulation continuity and the
severity of thermal bridges, and (d) investigating the performance of building services.
Thermal imaging in the UAE and the region is a novel area of study. A field experiment
investigating the thermal behavior of residential buildings’ envelope through infrared thermography
Thermography Residential Building Defects Detection during Construction in the UAE
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