Development of experimental study on coupled heat and moisture transfer in porous building envelope

A new facility was presented which can expediently and cheaply measure the transient moisture content profile in multi-layer porous building envelope. Then, a common multi-layer porous building envelope was provided, which was constructed by cement mortar-red brick-cement plaster. With this kind of building envelope installed in the south wall, a well-controlled air-conditioning room was set up in Changsha, which is one of typical zones of hot and humid climate in China. And experiments were carried out to investigate the temperature and moisture distribution in multi-layer building envelope in summer, both in sunny day and rainy day. The results show that, the temperature and humidity at the interface between the brick and cement mortar are seriously affected by the changes of outdoor temperature and humidity, and the relative humidity at this interface keeps more than 80% for a long-term, which can easily trigger the growth of mould. The temperature and humidity at the interface between the brick and cement plaster change a little, and they are affected by the changes of indoor temperature and humidity. The temperature and humidity at the interface of the wall whose interior surface is affixed with a foam plastic wallpaper are generally higher than those of the wall without wallpaper. The heat transfer and moisture transfer in the envelope are coupled strongly.