34 pages, 15 figures, 48 references. Other author's papers can be downloaded at http://www.denys-dutykh.com/International audienceWhen comparing measurements to numerical simulations of moisture transfer through porous materials a rush of the experimental moisture front is commonly observed in several works shown in the literature, with transient models that consider only the diffusion process. Thus, to overcome the discrepancies between the experimental and the numerical models, this paper proposes to include the moisture advection transfer in the governing equation. To solve the advection-diffusion differential equation, it is first proposed two efficient numerical schemes and their efficiencies are investigated for both linear and nonlinear cases. The first scheme, Scharfetter-Gummel (SG), presents a Courant-Friedrichs-Lewy (CFL) condition but is more accurate and faster than the second scheme, the well-known Crank-Nicolson approach. Furthermore, the SG scheme has the advantages of being well-balanced and asymptotically preserved. Then, to conclude, results of the convective moisture transfer problem obtained with the SG numerical scheme are compared to experimental data from the literature. The inclusion of an advective term in the model may clearly lead to better results than purely diffusive models

Implicit schemes have been extensively used in building physics to compute the solution of moisture diffusion problems in porous materials for improving stability conditions. Nevertheless, these schemes require important sub-iterations when treating nonlinear problems. To overcome this disadvantage, this paper explores the use of improved explicit schemes, such as Dufort-Frankel, Crank-Nicolson and hyperbolisation approaches. A first case study has been considered with the hypothesis of linear transfer. The Dufort-Frankel, Crank-Nicolson and hyperbolisation schemes were compared to the classical Euler explicit scheme and to a reference solution. Results have shown that the hyperbolisation scheme has a stability condition higher than the standard Courant-Friedrichs-Lewy (CFL) condition. The error of this schemes depends on the parameter τ representing the hyperbolicity magnitude added into the equation. The Dufort-Frankel scheme has the advantages of being unconditionally stable and is preferable for nonlinear transfer, which is the three others cases studies. Results have shown the error is proportional to O(∆t) . A modified Crank-Nicolson scheme has been also studied in order to avoid sub-iterations to treat the nonlinearities at each time step. The main advantages of the Dufort-Frankel scheme are (i) to be twice faster than the Crank-Nicolson approach; (ii) to compute explicitly the solution at each time step; (iii) to be unconditionally stable and (iv) easier to parallelise on high-performance computer systems. Although the approach is unconditionally stable, the choice of the time discretisation ∆t remains an important issue to accurately represent the physical phenomena.

Comparisons of experimental observation of heat and moisture transfer through porous building materials with numerical results have been presented in numerous studies reported in literature. However, some discrepancies have been observed, highlighting underestimation of sorption process and overestimation of desorption process. Some studies intend to explain the discrepancies by analysing the importance of hysteresis effects as well as carrying out sensitivity analyses on the input parameters as convective transfer coefficients. This article intends to investigate the accuracy and efficiency of the coupled solution by adding advective transfer of both heat and moisture in the physical model. In addition, the efficient Scharfetter and Gummel numerical scheme is proposed to solve the system of advection-diffusion equations, which has the advantages of being wellbalanced and asymptotically preserving. Moreover, the scheme is particularly efficient in terms of accuracy and reduction of computational time when using large spatial discretisation parameters. Several linear and non-linear cases are studied to validate the method and highlight its specific features. At the end, an experimental benchmark from the literature is considered. The numerical results are compared to the experimental data for a pure diffusive model and also for the proposed model. The latter presents better agreement with the experimental data. The influence of the hysteresis effects on the moisture capacity is also studied, by adding a third differential equation.

Abstract. Implicit schemes require important sub-iterations when dealing with highly nonlinear problems such as the combined heat and moisture transfer through porous building elements. The computational cost rises significantly when the whole-building is simulated, especially when there is important coupling among the building elements themselves with neighbouring zones and with HVAC (Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning) systems. On the other hand, the classical Euler explicit scheme is generally not used because its stability condition imposes very fine time discretisation. Hence, this paper explores the use of an improved explicit approach -the Dufort-Frankel scheme -to overcome the disadvantage of the classical explicit one and to bring benefits that cannot be obtained by implicit methods. The Dufort-Frankel approach is first compared to the classical Euler implicit and explicit schemes to compute the solution of nonlinear heat and moisture transfer through porous materials. Then, the analysis of the Dufort-Frankel unconditionally stable explicit scheme is extended to the coupled heat and moisture balances on the scale of a one-and a two-zone building models. The Dufort-Frankel scheme has the benefits of being unconditionally stable, second-order accurate in time O (∆t 2 ) and to compute explicitly the solution at each time step, avoiding costly sub-iterations. This approach may reduce the computational cost by twenty, as well as it may enable perfect synchronism for whole-building simulation and co-simulation.

This paper proposes the use of a Spectral method to simulate diffusive moisture transfer through porous materials as a Reduced-Order Model (ROM). The Spectral approach is an a priori method assuming a separated representation of the solution. The method is compared with both classical Euler implicit and Crank-Nicolson schemes, considered as large original models. Their performance -in terms of accuracy, complexity reduction and CPU time reduction -are discussed for linear and nonlinear cases of moisture diffusive transfer through single and multi-layered one-dimensional domains, considering highly moisture-dependent properties. Results show that the Spectral reducedorder model approach enables to simulate accurately the field of interest. Furthermore, numerical gains become particularly interesting for nonlinear cases since the proposed method can drastically reduce the computer run time, by a factor of 100 , when compared to the traditional Crank-Nicolson scheme for one-dimensional applications.

No abstract

It is of great concern to produce numerically efficient methods for moisture diffusion through porous media, capable of accurately calculate moisture distribution with a reduced computational effort. In this way, model reduction methods are promising approaches to bring a solution to this issue since they do not degrade the physical model and provide a significant reduction of computational cost. Therefore, this article explores in details the capabilities of two model-reduction techniques -the Spectral Reduced-Order Model (Spectral-ROM) and the Proper Generalised Decomposition (PGD) -to numerically solve moisture diffusive transfer through porous materials. Both approaches are applied to three different problems to provide clear examples of the construction and use of these reduced-order models. The methodology of both approaches is explained extensively so that the article can be used as a numerical benchmark by anyone interested in building a reduced-order model for diffusion problems in porous materials. Linear and non-linear unsteady behaviors of unidimensional moisture diffusion are investigated. The last case focuses on solving a parametric problem in which the solution depends on space, time and the diffusivity properties. Results have highlighted that both methods provide accurate solutions and enable to reduce significantly the order of the model around ten times lower than the large original model. It also allows an efficient computation of the physical phenomena with an error lower than 10 −2 when compared to a reference solution.

An adaptive simulation of nonlinear heat and moisture transfer as a boundary value problem arXiv.org / hal Abstract. This work presents an alternative view on the numerical simulation of diffusion processes applied to the heat and moisture transfer through porous building materials. Traditionally, by using the finite-difference approach, the discretization follows the Method Of Lines (MOL), when the problem is first discretized in space to obtain a large system of coupled Ordinary Differential Equations (ODEs). Thus, this paper proposes to change this viewpoint. First, we discretize in time to obtain a small system of coupled ODEs, which means instead of having a Cauchy (Initial Value) Problem (IVP), we have a Boundary Value Problem (BVP). Fortunately, BVPs can be solved efficiently today using adaptive collocation methods of high order. To demonstrate the benefits of this new approach, three case studies are presented, in which one of them is compared with experimental data. The first one considers nonlinear heat and moisture transfer through one material layer while the second one considers two material layers. Results show how the nonlinearities and the interface between materials are easily treated, by reasonably using a fourth-order adaptive method. Finally, the last case study compares numerical results with experimental measurements, showing a good agreement.Key words and phrases: coupled heat and moisture diffusive transfer; boundary value problems; semi-discretization in time; semi-discretization in space; bvp4c MSC: [2010] 35R30 (primary), 35K05, 80A20, 65M32 (secondary)