/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/10.1177/109719603032804Journal of Thermal Envelope & Building Science, 26, 3, pp. 213-236, 2003-01-01 Moisture transport across interfaces between autoclaved aerated concrete and mortar Qiu, X.; Haghighat, F.; Kumaran, M. K. ABSTRACTExperiments were carried out to study the moisture transport across bonded or natural contact interface between AAC and mortar. Bonded contact, in the present study, refers to the contact between two building materials involving penetration of pore structure with a bonding agent, while natural contact refers to the good physical contact between two building material without penetration of pore structure. The moisture content profiles were measured using gamma ray spectrometer. The experimental results showed that, for both types of contact, the assumption of imperfect hydraulic contact is more appropriate than the widely used assumption, perfect hydraulic contact. Furthermore, the latter assumption may result in significant error in predicting moisture transport. The mismatching resistance was assumed in the study to explain the impact of imperfect hydraulic contact on the moisture transport. In addition, a numerical model was developed to calculate the moisture transport in multi-layered materials and was applied to estimate either the mismatching resistance of the interface or the resistance of air films.For a specimen without an interface the agreement between model prediction and experimental results was good. It was found that mismatching resistance of the interface varied with moisture content, the type of source material and the interface with the sink material. This study indicates that the bonded interface can be approximately treated as the natural contact interface, while the presence of an air gap between AAC and AAC could significantly increase the resistance to moisture transport from one material to another.