An increased interest in moisture buffering in the indoor environment and the development of more refined hygrothermal calculation tools call for a better understanding of the phenomenon. There are many materials indoors with potential to act as moisture buffers, ranging from traditional finishing materials as gypsum plaster to textiles. The objective of this study is to show that the interest in moisture buffering is not a new issue. There have been significant laboratory studies made in the past. This study presents a review of such previous studies (1960-2000) on indoor surface materials from Germany and Sweden, not published in English before.
In order to get more information about the moisture transport through the interface of two capillary active materials, the capillary liquid transport for two types of layers of natural sandstone in ideal hygric contact was observed. The results show that the water absorption behaviour of the composite samples is strongly dependent on the sequence of its composition. This can be explained by the different water retention curves of the materials. Calculation shows in all cases good agreement between the measured and calculated values for the water absorption and for the moisture profiles. Examinations of the moisture transport between rendering and brick show that the moisture transport is reduced. Comparisons between measurement and calculation indicate that the introduction of a thin resistance layer between rendering (or mortar) and stone is necessary. With this layer the liquid transport through the interface can be simulated correctly.
Designing energy efficient and comfortable buildings requires harmonizing the complex interactions of architecture, construction and building service engineering. The building envelope has a particular importance, since it integrates many functions and has direct influence on indoor climate. Focusing on satisfaction of the user means that the indoor climate is a key for a holistic design approach. Only a satisfied user will not intervene with the designed energy concept or the indoor climate control; dissatisfaction results in multiple system interventions which may cause waste of energy and sometimes even damage to building envelope components. Satisfaction with the indoor environment also increases working productivity or enables effective recreation of residents. The paper deals with international research activities in the field of climate specific building design. Various comfort and energy monitoring surveys of office buildings as well as residential buildings provide substantial information about the occupants' behavior and their needs during specific situations under different outdoor climates. This information allows summarizing basic climate dependent design principles which architects should keep in mind during the early stages of the design process. It also helps to develop strategies aiming at reducing building energy demand and at the same time consider comfort aspects. The second part of this paper demonstrates application of the climate dependent design principles in a housing project in Dubai
Following the work of Fiala we developed and tested a parametric multi-segment manikin model as the interface between Fiala's human thermoregulation model and other computational codes for studying transient and local effects of thermal sensation and comfort perception. The model allows for motion control by transforming body parts according to an armature model which relates topological dependencies. The position of joints and decomposition into segments is chosen in terms of the settings of Fiala's model. Several faceted geometric models are available such as the NASA MSIS Standard or predefined NASTRAN geometries. The developed thermoregulation interface provides means to computational steering, i.e. to interact with an ongoing simulation. The boundary conditions, the type of clothing, or the activity level can be modified online, results are updated on a real time scale during the simulation. The visualization on the artificial skin of the manikin includes the surface/skin temperatures and the local thermal sensation votes (LTSV); likewise the predicted mean vote (PMV) and the dynamic thermal sensation (DTS) are output. The LTSV data are based on experimental data which were obtained in a test chamber involving 24 test subjects for three levels of clothing insulation and a light level of activity
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