ISSN Online: 2377-424X
International Heat Transfer Conference 12
Use of hygrothermal numerical modelling to identify optimal retrofit options for high-rise buildings
Resumo
Using numerical modelling to simulate and predict the hygrothermal (i.e., combined thermal and moisture)
performance of building envelopes is very recent. Key questions include: how to model accurately coupled heatair
and capillary moisture transports in building envelope components; a satisfactory definition of a set of representative environmental boundary conditions to be used for long-term hygrothermal calculations; how to characterize the moisture- and temperature-dependent properties; the effect of aging and cyclic environmental conditions on porous building materials; and how to develop sound criteria to predict the moisture durability of building envelope components. This paper presents the findings of a research project involving detailed hygrothermal modelling. The heat, air and moisture results demonstrated that the in-house model could be adapted successfully for high-rise building calculations. The findings also show how the long-term hygrothermal performance of typical wall systems can be assessed using numerical modelling. A short description of an advanced in-house heat, air and moisture model, hygIRC, is also presented.