Flat roof hygrothermal performance testing and evaluation
International Journal of Building Pathology and Adaptation
ISSN: 2398-4708
Article publication date: 18 September 2019
Issue publication date: 20 January 2020
Abstract
Purpose
Understanding the dynamic hygrothermal behavior of building elements is very important to ensure the optimal performance of buildings. The Laboratory for Quality Control in Buildings of the Basque Government tested a flat roof designed by a construction company that developed a building to be constructed using prefabricated modules. This is a five to eight floor building with ventilated façade and a flat roof covered by gravel with the possibility of changing it to a green cover. The paper aims to discuss this issue.
Design/methodology/approach
The interest of this research was threefold. The first objective was to accurately test, under real dynamic weather conditions, the roof design in a PASLINK test cell to obtain the U-value and the thermal capacitance of the different roof layers, and of the roof as a whole, through the precise calibration of resistance-capacitance mathematical models of the roof. Based on the parameters and experimental information of these calibrated models, a second goal was to calibrate and validate a Wufi model of the roof.
Findings
This second calibrated model was then used to simulate the dynamic hygrothermal behavior of the roof, obtaining the roof’s hourly thermal demand per square meter for a whole year in different locations considered in the Spanish Building Code. These simulations also permitted the authors to study the risk of condensation and mold growth of the tested component under different climatic conditions.
Originality/value
The successful combination of the PASLINK method to calibrate the Wufi hygrothermal model is the main novelty of this research.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Funding: this work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities and the European Regional Development Fund through the MONITHERM project, project reference: RTI2018-096296-B-C22 (MCIU/AEI/FEDER, UE).
Special acknowledgements to the Laboratory for the Quality Control in Buildings (LCCE) of the Basque Government for providing the opportunity to use their PASLINK test cell site for the tests carried out in this research.
Citation
Erkoreka, A., Flores-Abascal, I., Escudero, C., Martin, K., Millan, J.A. and Sala, J.M. (2020), "Flat roof hygrothermal performance testing and evaluation", International Journal of Building Pathology and Adaptation, Vol. 38 No. 1, pp. 148-175. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJBPA-02-2019-0015
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited