Masonry Magazine January 1981 Page.18
Brick Flooring
The use of brick paving is discussed in detail in Technical Notes 14B. The brick flooring may also be constructed by laying face brick in a rowlock position. Another option is to use reinforced brick masonry floors, as discussed in Technical Notes 14B.
THERMAL STORAGE WALLS
General
Figures 4 through 6 show the thermal storage wall being used as a structural component of the building, supporting various floor and roof systems. These combinations are not typical, but are offered to demonstrate the various alternatives available.
The thickness of the brick thermal storage wall may be estimated, using the methodology provided in Technical Notes 43E and 43F. The thickness required for thermal storage walls is usually sufficient for the wall to be used as a loadbearing component of the building without any special considerations. However, it may be necessary to check the structural adequacy of the wall.
The thermal storage wall may be several wythes of solid brick, as shown in Fig. 4; solid through-the-wall units; a grouted cavity wall system, as shown in Fig. 5; or grouted hollow units or combinations of grouted hollow units and solid units, as shown in Fig. 6.
Details
Details for solid brick thermal storage walls are shown in Fig. 4. Corbeling the thermal storage wall to provide support for the exterior glazing is one way to eliminate the need for thick foundation walls. Brick masonry may be laid as projected headers to provide a durable support for attaching the glazing assembly to the wall. This eliminates the use of combustible materials exposed to high temperatures for extended periods of time. Projected headers may provide a durable non-combustible, horizontal separation between individual floors for multi-story vented thermal storage wall systems. This may be used to comply with the building code requirements regarding the fire-stopping of plenums. Vertical separation to provide a means of closing the sides of the thermal storage wall air space may also be achieved with projected headers.
Depending upon the structural loads imposed on the projected headers and to avoid exposing cores, corbeling may be required, as shown in Fig. 4. The air space between the glazing and the thermal storage wall should be of a thickness that satisfies the building code requirements for unreinforced corbeling. If these limitations cannot be met, an alternate means of support for the glazing will be required.
Additional glazing is provided in each detail to show that the thermal storage wall need not be a solid barrier eliminating any view of the exterior or daylighting. This glazing may be used as a direct gain collector with
TABLE 1
Vent Area Factor, F
| Solar Savings Fraction, SSF | Vent Area Factor, F. |
| :-------------------------- | :------------------- |
| 0.25 or less | 2.16 |
| 0.30 | 1.87 |
| 0.35 | 1.58 |
| 0.40 | 1.30 |
| 0.45 | 1.01 |
| 0.50 | 0.72 |
| 0.55 | 0.65 |
| 0.60 | 0.58 |
| 0.65 | 0.50 |
| 0.70 | 0.43 |
| 0.75 ог more | 0.36 |
*Solar Savings Fraction as determined by using Method 1 of Technical
Notes 43B.
interior brick masonry floors and walls as the thermal storage.
The air space between exterior glazing and the thermal storage wall may be interrupted at various intervals and the thermal storage wall made discontinuous, as shown in Fig. 7. This may be used to incorporate direct gain and thermal storage walls into a combined system.
Operable or stationary shading devices may be attached to the structural framing of the glazing assemblies. The glazing assemblies should be sufficiently anchored to the brick masonry to accommodate these additional loads.
Vents
If the thermal storage wall is to be vented, each opening through the thermal storage wall should be approximately 64 sq in. The length of the opening should be about 4 times the height of the opening. The vents should occur as sets, one at the top of the wall directly over one at the bottom of the wall, to facilitate air flow. The number of sets of vents may be approximated by using Equation 1.
n' F [(lxh)/(lxh)]
where:
n'
F,
I
approximate number of sets of vents.
vent area factor from Table 1.
(1)
length of the vented thermal storage wall, in ft.
h= height of the vented thermal storage wall, in ft.
length of the vent opening, in inches, approximately 4 x h
1,
h,
height of the vent opening, in inches.
The actual number of sets of vents to be installed, ne, should be a whole number. Performance tends to decrease as the percentage of vent area to wall area increases. The next lower whole number to n,' should typically be used as the actual number of vents to be