LAUSR

Studying the thermo-optical properties of construction materials (i.e. thermal conductivity, optical reflectance, optical transmittance, and optical absorbance) is essential for improving human comfort within a building. Typically, these properties are measured independently using specific equipment. The emergence of new innovative construction structures, such as translucent materials, makes the experimental characterization of these properties more challenging to observe. Recently, a new device, called MulticoefMeter (McM), which rapidly and simultaneously measures all these properties, has been created. The study described in this article covers the calculation technique for estimating measurement uncertainties linked to morphology, the parts, and the physical formula of the experimental apparatus. The measurement uncertainty estimates are obtained from knowledge of the color of the system’s walls, placement, and form of the McM components, placement of the measurement sensors, and the application of measurement collection equipment. Therefore, a thorough calculation analysis was performed on the sub-systems. Calculations are divided into two categories: those based on mathematical tools and information given by the makers and those based on experimental observations obtained during reliability testing. These uncertainties originate from statistical tools, geometric tolerance of the system, comparison with standards, and the error propagation laws of the physical models’ link with the device. All these uncertainties were summed up and given a global value, no more than 5%, conforming to the ASTM standard (E1225). Finally, a general method to quantify the measurement uncertainty value of any experimental device was proposed.