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Effect of Uncertainty in the Hygrothermal Properties on Hygrothermal Modeling

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Proceedings of the 11th International Symposium on Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (ISHVAC 2019) (ISHVAC 2019)

Part of the book series: Environmental Science and Engineering ((ENVENG))

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Abstract

Building envelopes are subject to the transient climate conditions. Moisture transfer which is coupled with heat transfer is an important issue in the field of building science. The moisture transfer and accumulation within building envelopes can lead to poor thermal performance, metal corrosion, wood decay, structure deterioration, microbial and mold growth. It is of great significance to investigate the hygrothermal behavior of building envelopes to improve the building energy efficiency, service life of buildings and indoor comfort. Though a lot of works have been done on the hygrothermal behavior of building materials, the experimental investigation is relatively lack. The hygrothermal properties of commonly used building materials which are the foundation of hygrothermal modeling often show a great uncertainty in the existing literatures. It may lead to significant discrepancy in the numerical results. In this paper, the local sensitivity analysis (LSA) method is used to investigate the effect of the uncertainty in hygrothermal properties, including the thermal conductivity, sorption isotherm, water vapor permeability and liquid water permeability, on the hygrothermal modeling. The results show that the uncertainty in the sorption isothermal and vapor permeability can lead to pretty high discrepancy in the distribution of the moisture content. The uncertainty in the sorption isothermal and vapor permeability causes relatively high error in temperature. These two properties must be determined accurately. The error caused by the uncertainty in liquid water permeability is limited since the relative humidity of the outdoor atmosphere is usually lower than 95% under which the capillary conduction is extremely weak.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant no. 51708271, 51408294) and Jiangxi Province Department of Science and Technology Project (Grant no. 20171BBB216034).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Nanchang University, Nanchang, 330031, China

    Xiangwei Liu, Ying Liu, Xingguo Guo & Na Luo

  2. Key Laboratory for Ultra-Low Energy Buildings of Jiangxi Province, Nanchang, 330031, China

    Xiangwei Liu, Ying Liu, Xingguo Guo & Na Luo

  3. Engineering Lab for Nearly Zero Energy Buildings of Jiangxi Province, Nanchang, 330031, China

    Xiangwei Liu, Ying Liu, Xingguo Guo & Na Luo

  4. College of Civil Engineering, University of South China, 28 Changsheng West Road, Hengyang, 421001, China

    Guojie Chen

Authors
  1. Xiangwei Liu
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  2. Ying Liu
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  3. Xingguo Guo
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  4. Na Luo
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  5. Guojie Chen
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Xingguo Guo .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Building Thermal Engineering, School of Architecture, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, Heilongjiang, China

    Zhaojun Wang

  2. Department of Building Science, School of Architecture, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

    Yingxin Zhu

  3. Department of Building Thermal Engineering, School of Architecture, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, Heilongjiang, China

    Fang Wang

  4. Department of Building Thermal Engineering, School of Architecture, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, Heilongjiang, China

    Peng Wang

  5. Department of Building Thermal Engineering, School of Architecture, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, Heilongjiang, China

    Chao Shen

  6. Department of Building Thermal Engineering, School of Architecture, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, Heilongjiang, China

    Jing Liu

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Liu, X., Liu, Y., Guo, X., Luo, N., Chen, G. (2020). Effect of Uncertainty in the Hygrothermal Properties on Hygrothermal Modeling. In: Wang, Z., Zhu, Y., Wang, F., Wang, P., Shen, C., Liu, J. (eds) Proceedings of the 11th International Symposium on Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (ISHVAC 2019). ISHVAC 2019. Environmental Science and Engineering(). Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-9528-4_47

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