Benchmark experiments for moisture transfer modelling in air and porous materials

The presence of hygroscopic materials has a large impact on the moisture balance of buildings. Nowadays, HAM (Heat, Air and Moisture) models are widely used to investigate the role of hygroscopic materials on the performance of buildings, i.e. on the building envelope, the indoor climate and valuable objects stored within the building. Recently, these HAM models are being coupled to CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) models to study the moisture exchange between air and porous materials on a local scale (microclimates), or to BES (Building Energy Simulation) models which focus on the interaction between air and porous materials at building level. Validation of these numerical codes is essential to gain confidence in the codes. However, available experimental data are rather scarce.