- Author
-
Cornick, S.
|
Rousseau, M. Z.
- Title
- Understanding the Severity of Climate Loads for Moisture-Related Design of Walls.
- Coporate
- National Research Council of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario
- Report
-
NRCC-46775,
- Book or Conf
- Building Science Insight 2003 Seminar Series. Proceedings. October 2003,
Canada,
1-3 p.,
2003
- Keywords
-
walls
|
climate
|
moisture
|
rainfall
|
building envelope
|
drying
|
condensation
|
wind velocity
- Identifiers
- selected rainfall data for 15 Canadian locations; wind-driven rain; drying potential due to atmospheric moisture; combining wetting and drying potentials into one index; mean wind speed, predominant direction, and mean pressure for the BSI locations; monthly mean rainfall and monthly mean temperature plots
- Abstract
- The fundamental function of the building envelope is its separation of the outside and the inside environments to that indoor conditions can be controlled to meet many requirements (for example, comfort and energy efficiency). The design and construction of durable, efficient walls requires consideration of the climate loads to which these building components will be exposed. A wall assembly that is trouble free in one area of the country may not perform adequately in another. This is because, although the building physics do not change, the heat, air and moisture (liquid and vapour) control strategies may need to integrate different levels of redundancy for different climate conditions. The severity of the climate for a building site cannot be changed, but it needs to be acknowledged and be incorporated in the design of the wall assemblies. Understanding the climate loads acting on building components is an important step towards effective design of moisture-management strategies.