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Author
Maref, W. | Lacasse, M. A. | Booth, D.
Title
Assessing the Hygrothermal Response of Wood Sheathing and Combined Membrane-Sheathing Assemblies to Steady-State Environmental Conditions.
Coporate
National Research Council of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario
Report
NRCC-46103,
Distribution
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: National Research Council of Canada, Institute for Research in Construction, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0R6, Telephone (613) 993-2607, Fax: (613) 952-7673, Email: Irc.Client-Services@nrc.ca Website: http://www.nrc.ca/irc/ircpubs Full document in PDF: http://irc.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/fulltext/nrcc46103/
Book or Conf
Building Physics Conference, 2nd International. Proceedings. September 14-18, 2003, Leuven, Belgium, 1-10 p., 2003
Keywords
wood | environmental effects | drying rte | experiments | building envelope | construction | physical properties | moisture content
Abstract
The hygrothermal performance of building envelope system is dictated by the response of the system to combined heat, air and moisture fluctuations produced by exterior and interior conditions that exist on either side of the envelope. This study was undertaken to generate information that would assist the bench-marking hygIRC model and related methods to assess hygrothermal performance of wall assemblies. This pa-per reports on experimental results to assess the drying rate of various combinations of sheathing membrane in close contact with wood-based sheathing. A weighing system was devised to conduct drying experiments on wood based products that would retrieve data on the change in weight of specimens continuously over time from which the hygrothermal response of the specimens could then be determined. Specimens consisting of saturated wood sheathing board products of approximately 0.8-m by 1-m size and weighing 5-kg, were either wrapped in different types of sheathing membrane or directly exposed to uniform environmental conditions in a climate chamber. Results provide a measure of the hygrothermal response of the different combinations of sheathing and sheathing membrane and establish rates at which drying occurs in these products. The results are useful in helping benchmark mathematical hygrothermal simulation model hygIRC.