Simultaneous heat and moisture transport in porous building materials: evaluation of nonisothermal moisture transport properties

The paper presents a mathematical model for calculating the nonisothermal moisture transfer in porous building materials. The simultaneous heat and moisture transfer problem was modeled. Vapor content and temperature were chosen as principal driving potentials. The coupled equations were solved by a numerical method. An experimental methodology for determining the temperature gradient coefficient for building materials was also proposed. Both the moisture diffusion coefficient and the temperature gradient coefficient for building material were experimentally evaluated. Using the measured moisture transport coefficients, the temperature and vapor content distribution inside building materials were predicted by the new model. The results were compared with experimental data. A good agreement was obtained.