Timber-frame brick veneer construction originated in countries in which houses were traditionally constructed with loadbearing timber frames which were clad with non-loadbearing weather boarding or similar light-weight materials. Timber-frame house construction is extensively used in countries such as Canada, Scandinavia, Australia and North America. With the Canadian system, buildings of up to three storeys can be erected with loadbearing timber frames. This particular system was also adopted in France - the Igny project~ and in England - the Harlow project. In most of these cases, basements or crawl-spaces underneath the house were incorporated in the design. In these countries there have a trend towards the use of a brick cladding (veneer) for timber-frame structures. This is a comparatively recent introduction in these countries, but it has already been extensively used. This trend is primarily related to the appearance and other advantages (for example durability and ease of maintenance in the case of a face-brick clauding) of a masonry exterior, while largely retaining the low cost benefits of timber-frame construction.

Brick veneer / steel stud curtain wall systems have become a popular alternative in the ever competitive construction market. However, the application of such systems has preceded any formal scientific investigation into its long term serviceability and safety. Of particular interest to many parties is the performance of the wall system under typical winter conditions as would be encountered in cold climate countries such as Canada. In this study, an experimental investigation of three types of brick veneer / steel stud curtain walls was performed with a specially built apparatus used to impose air pressure, temperature and vapour pressure differentials across test specimens. In all, five wall specimens were tested for air leakage, thermal performance and moisture accumulation. An analytical investigation was also carried out with a simple, custom made finite difference computer program specially suited to determine temperature profiles in walls with a steel stud framing system. Six types of walls are evaluated with the model. A significant part of the research involved the design, construction and improvement of the test apparatus. Since the apparatus is unique, a chapter is devoted to its description. The conclusions presented indicate that certain wall designs perform poorly and that even small construction flaws can lead to serviceability problems. Conversely, care in choice and placement of the air barrier, vapour barrier and thermal insulation in the wall system can lead to a wall system that can sustain a small degree of construction errors and at the same time perform satisfactorily. It is furthermore concluded that the apparatus built for this study has real potential as a cost effective test tool suitable for adaptation for a standard test method to evaluate the environmental performance of wall systems in general. / Thesis / Master of Engineering (ME)

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