- Author
-
Rousseau, M. Z.
|
Dalgliesh, W. A.
- Title
- Selected Findings of an IRC Study of the Wetting and Drying Potentials of Wood-Frame Walls Exposed to Different Climates.
- Coporate
- National Research Council of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario
- Report
-
NRCC 47066; ORAL-598,
- Book or Conf
- CIB World Building Congress 2004 (CIB 2004): Building for the Future in conjunction with Indoor Air Quality, Ventilation and Energy Conservation in Buildings, 5th International Conference (IAQVEC 2004) and Multipurpose High-Rise Towers and Tall Buildings, 6th International Conference (HTB). Proceedings. May 1-7, 2004,
Toronto, Canada,
1-9 p.,
2004
- Keywords
-
climate
|
wetting
|
drying
|
wooden structures
|
walls moisture
- Abstract
- The National Research Council of Canada, with partners from industry, has just completed a four-year project on the wetting and drying performance of exterior walls of low-rise wood-frame buildings exposed to a range of climate loads characteristic of North America. The Moisture Management in Exterior walls (MEWS) project activities included a review of typical construction practices, the characterization of hygrothermal properties for many commonly used building materials, the assessment of moisture loads for different North American locations, laboratory tests of large-scale wall specimens to measure water entry through imperfections, and finally a parametric study using IRC's hygIRC 2Dhygrothermal numerical model to predict moisture and temperature balances at selected locations within virtual wall assemblies. The MEWS study has produced a method of comparing the risks of deterioration associated with different wall assemblies using different material properties, exposed to different climatic moisture loads.