Monitoring and simulation of diurnal surface conditions of a wooden facade

Abstract

The hygrothermal surface conditions of a façade is important for the degradation of the façade material as well as for the energy budget of the building. The distribution of short term variations of the temperature and moisture in the façade is often neglected in degradation studies that will typically treat the whole façade equally. The moisture and temperature variations are especially important in porous building materials where water dependent biological and physical processes are the main degrading factors. In this study the diurnal cycle of the surface temperature is measured with conventional temperature probes as well as with infra-red camera. In addition, the moisture content of the wooden façade is measured with resistive measurement technique. The measurements are used to validate simulations of the spatial temperature and moisture variations on the façade. The study shows large variations of surface conditions on the façade and that the simulations reproduces the measurements within a high degree of accuracy.