Recent history has documented the premature failures of building envelopes in various regions-in North America most notably on the West Coast and the East Coast. The MEWS Consortium, a project undertaken by IRC and its partners, has addressed this issue in detail. The strategy for answering these questions was based on predicting the moisture management performance of wall systems as a function of climate, wall construction, and material properties through mathematical modeling. A key task was to determine what years to use as input for the simulations. Moisture Reference Years were selected using a Moisture Index approach developed for MEWS. This paper will develop the approach and compare it with other methods of selecting Moisture Reference Years for hygrothermal simulations.

/npsi/ctrl?lang=en http://nparc.cisti-icist.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/npsi/ctrl?lang=fr Access and use of this website and the material on it are subject to the Terms and Conditions set forth at http://nparc.cisti-icist.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/npsi/jsp/nparc_cp.jsp?lang=en NRC Publications Archive Archives des publications du CNRCThis publication could be one of several versions: author's original, accepted manuscript or the publisher's version. / La version de cette publication peut être l'une des suivantes : la version prépublication de l'auteur, la version acceptée du manuscrit ou la version de l'éditeur. For the publisher's version, please access the DOI link below./ Pour consulter la version de l'éditeur, utilisez le lien DOI ci-dessous.http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/109719603036210Journal of Thermal Envelope & Building Science, 27, 2, pp. 151-178, 2003-10-01 A Moisture index to characterize climates for building envelope design Cornick, S. M.; Dalgliesh, W. A. with lab testing and hygrothermal modeling to understand and deal with these problems. The method proposed in this paper was used in MEWS to 1) characterize climate with respect to the risk of moisture related building envelope problems, 2) select locations of interest for a detailed hygrothermal parametric study, and 3) to select moisture reference years for the parametric study (not covered in this paper). This paper describes a method proposed for mapping North American climatic regions according to moisture loading on one hand, and the potential for drying on the other. The composite Moisture Index can be used either with hourly records or summary data, and shows promise for application to specific problems, such as decay or corrosion, depending on the nature and mechanisms of the problem being investigated.Keywords: wall moisture; annual rainfall; climate classification; rain wetting; drying potential; moisture index; driving rain; directional driving rain index; decay hazard; Review Approaches to Climate Classification for ConstructionThere are several different schemes for classifying the world's climate, most of them possessing genuine merit. Almost all of the schemes of climate classification have subdivisions and boundaries partly based upon temperature and rainfall parameters which are not meaningful in themselves, but have significance in terms of some non-climatic feature, such as vegetation or human habitability. If one disregards non-climatic phenomena, it is difficult to provide meaningful temperature-rainfall limits of climatic types. The majority of classification schemes, therefore, are of an applied character. One basis for grouping climate schemes is to divide them into genetic (concerning origin) and empirical types. In genetic classifications an attempt is made to group climates into the causative factors (e.g. air masses, wind zones) that may be responsible for them. In empirical classifications, origin is discarded as an organizing principle, and observation and experience provide the essential elements for climatic differentiation. The Köppen cla...

/npsi/ctrl?lang=en http://nparc.cisti-icist.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/npsi/ctrl?lang=fr Access and use of this website and the material on it are subject to the Terms and Conditions set forth at http://nparc.cisti-icist.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/npsi/jsp/nparc_cp.jsp?lang=en NRC Publications Archive Archives des publications du CNRCThis publication could be one of several versions: author's original, accepted manuscript or the publisher's version. / La version de cette publication peut être l'une des suivantes : la version prépublication de l'auteur, la version acceptée du manuscrit ou la version de l'éditeur. For the publisher's version, please access the DOI link below./ Pour consulter la version de l'éditeur, utilisez le lien DOI ci-dessous.http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/109719603036210Journal of Thermal Envelope & Building Science, 27, 2, pp. 151-178, 2003-10-01 A Moisture index to characterize climates for building envelope design Cornick, S. M.; Dalgliesh, W. A. with lab testing and hygrothermal modeling to understand and deal with these problems. The method proposed in this paper was used in MEWS to 1) characterize climate with respect to the risk of moisture related building envelope problems, 2) select locations of interest for a detailed hygrothermal parametric study, and 3) to select moisture reference years for the parametric study (not covered in this paper). This paper describes a method proposed for mapping North American climatic regions according to moisture loading on one hand, and the potential for drying on the other. The composite Moisture Index can be used either with hourly records or summary data, and shows promise for application to specific problems, such as decay or corrosion, depending on the nature and mechanisms of the problem being investigated.Keywords: wall moisture; annual rainfall; climate classification; rain wetting; drying potential; moisture index; driving rain; directional driving rain index; decay hazard; Review Approaches to Climate Classification for ConstructionThere are several different schemes for classifying the world's climate, most of them possessing genuine merit. Almost all of the schemes of climate classification have subdivisions and boundaries partly based upon temperature and rainfall parameters which are not meaningful in themselves, but have significance in terms of some non-climatic feature, such as vegetation or human habitability. If one disregards non-climatic phenomena, it is difficult to provide meaningful temperature-rainfall limits of climatic types. The majority of classification schemes, therefore, are of an applied character. One basis for grouping climate schemes is to divide them into genetic (concerning origin) and empirical types. In genetic classifications an attempt is made to group climates into the causative factors (e.g. air masses, wind zones) that may be responsible for them. In empirical classifications, origin is discarded as an organizing principle, and observation and experience provide the essential elements for climatic differentiation. The Köppen cla...

/npsi/ctrl?lang=en http://nparc.cisti-icist.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/npsi/ctrl?lang=fr Access and use of this website and the material on it are subject to the Terms and Conditions set forth at http://nparc.cisti-icist.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/npsi/jsp/nparc_cp.jsp?lang=en NRC Publications Archive Archives des publications du CNRCThis publication could be one of several versions: author's original, accepted manuscript or the publisher's version. / La version de cette publication peut être l'une des suivantes : la version prépublication de l'auteur, la version acceptée du manuscrit ou la version de l'éditeur. Aerodynamics, 1, pp. 55-66, 1975 Comparison of model/full-scale wind pressures on a high-rise building Dalgliesh, W. A. Journal of Industrial.v'p a ",' e, ex gcfi\ Journal of Industrial Aerodynamics, 1 (1975) (Received November 14,1974) Summary Recent experience with wind-induced glass breakage in high-rise office towers has demonstrated the difficulty of pin-pointing potential problem areas on a building and hence the need for a better understanding of the magnitude and nature of cladding loads.55-66 , a q * ; k: d o Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company, Amsterdam -Printed in T?qNet'Results of surface wind pressure measurements made simultaneously at 32 points on a 57-storey office tower in Toronto are reported. In addition to readings taken at %-second intervals during high winds, mean and root-mean-square pressures were recorded for a 5-minute interval once each hour, and pressure coefficients referred to the free stream dynamic pressure at 286 m were computed for comparison with wind tunnel test information which was used in the design of the cladding.

/npsi/ctrl?lang=en http://nparc.cisti-icist.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/npsi/ctrl?lang=fr Access and use of this website and the material on it are subject to the Terms and Conditions set forth at http://nparc.cisti-icist.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/npsi/jsp/nparc_cp.jsp?lang=en NRC Publications Archive Archives des publications du CNRCThis publication could be one of several versions: author's original, accepted manuscript or the publisher's version. / La version de cette publication peut être l'une des suivantes : la version prépublication de l'auteur, la version acceptée du manuscrit ou la version de l'éditeur. Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics, 13, pp. 217-228, 1983 Comparison of model and full-scale accelerations of a high-rise building Dalgliesh, W. A.; Cooper, K. R.; Templin, J. T. On a obserfe pendant plusieurs annks les acc'el6rations produites lors de vents mod'erik 1 forts au "Commerce Court Journal of WindTower" de Toronto, au Canada, ainsi que l'effet de torsion aux Stages sup'erieurs du batiment. Les observations sur place et sur mod3le de la deviation normale de 1'acc'elSration correspondent pour la plupart des directions du vent. Les implications des r6sultats de cette dtude pour la conception des structures au moyen d'essais en soufflerie ou d'une methode de calcul basfie sur le Code, sont examinges. Journal of WindEngineering and Industrial Aerodynamics, 13 (1983) 217-228 Elsevier Science