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In situ determination of the moisture buffer potential of room enclosures

Vereecken, E., Roels, S. and Janssen, H.
2010
Journal of Building Physics, OnlineFirst
http://dx.doi.org/0.1177/1744259109358268

Vereecken, E., Roels, S. and Janssen, H., (2010), "In situ determination of the moisture buffer potential of room enclosures", Journal of Building Physics, OnlineFirst.
Abstract:
Indoor air quality, occupant's comfort, durability of building parts, and energy consumption are highly related to the variations in indoor relative humidity. Since interior finishes and objects assist in dampening the peaks in relative humidity, the knowledge of the moisture buffer potential of room enclosures is necessary to include its effect in whole-building simulations. In this article, a method for the in situ determination of the moisture buffer potential of room enclosures is presented. During a period of some days, a humidifier is placed in a room and a moisture production scheme is implemented. Based on the measured RH-increase and decrease during loading and unloading steps, the ventilation rate and moisture buffer potential of the room are determined inversely by solving the moisture balance of the room using the effective capacitance and effective moisture penetration depth models. The methodology is validated by well controlled experiments in a large climatic chamber with known hygric inertia, and afterwards applied to real room enclosures. Main advantage of the proposed method is that a simple and fast experiment allows obtaining a comprehensive characterization of the hygric inertia of the whole building enclosure - including all interior finishes and multidimensional interior objects such as furniture, carpets, drapes, books, etc.

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Author Information and Other Publications Notes
Vereecken, E.
  1. Review of mould prediction models and their influence on mould risk evaluation  
Roels, S.
Department of Civil Engineering Laboratory of Building Physics Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium
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  2. A comparison of the Nordtest and Japanese test methods for the moisture buffering performance of building materials
  3. A quasi-steady state implementation of air convection in a transient heat and moisture building component model
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  5. Determination of the isothermal moisture transport properties of porous building materials
  6. Determination of the liquid water diffusivity from transient moisture transfer experiments
  7. Determination of the moisture capacity of porous building materials
  8. Impact, absorption and evaporation of raindrops on building facades
  9. Microscopic analysis of imbibition processes in oolitic limestone
  10. Modeling fluid flow in fractured media using continuum, network and discrete aproaches
  11. Position paper on material characterization and HAM model benchmarking
  12. Qualitative and quantitative assessment of interior moisture buffering by enclosures
  13. Review of mould prediction models and their influence on mould risk evaluation
  14. Simulating non-isothermal water vapour transfer: an experimental validation on multi-layered building components
  15. Wind-driven rain as a boundary condition for HAM simulations: Analysis of simplified modelling approaches  
Janssen, H.
  1. A comparison of the Nordtest and Japanese test methods for the moisture buffering performance of building materials
  2. Conservative modelling of the moisture and heat transfer in building components under atmospheric excitation
  3. Impact, absorption and evaporation of raindrops on building facades
  4. Qualitative and quantitative assessment of interior moisture buffering by enclosures
  5. The influence of soil moisture in the unsaturated zone on the heat loss from buildings via the ground
  6. The influence of soil moisture transfer on building heat loss via the ground
  7. Wind-driven rain as a boundary condition for HAM simulations: Analysis of simplified modelling approaches  


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