A building envelope is a multi-layer porous structure. It transfers heat and moisture to balance the indoor and outdoor temperature difference and water vapor partial pressure difference. This is a typical coupled heat and moisture migration process. When the space is filled with moist air, water or ice, it will directly affect the thermal properties of the material. With respect to moisture coming through the wall into the indoor building, it will also affect the indoor environment and the energy consumption due to the formation of latent heat. However, the moisture transfer process in the building envelopes is not taken into account in the current conventional thermal calculation and energy consumption analysis. This paper analyzes the indoor thermal and humidity environment and building energy consumption of typical cities in Harbin, Shenyang, Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. The results show that it is obvious that the coupled heat and moisture transfer in the building envelopes has an impact on the annual cooling and heating energy consumption, the total energy consumption, and the indoor thermal and humidity environment. The geographical location of buildings ranging from north to south influences the effect of coupled heat and moisture transfer on the annual energy consumption of the building, moving from positive to negative. It is suggested that the additional coefficient of the coupled thermal and moisture method can effectively correct the existing energy consumption calculation results, which do not take the consumption from the coupled heat and moisture in the building envelopes into account.
This paper presents the research status of hygroscopic materials, points out the weak links as targets for major breakthroughs, and introduces humidifying mechanisms and their categories. In this paper, we simulated a single-monomer Shenyang office building with different envelopes of inner-surface hygroscopic materials for indoor humidity conditions, energy consumption, and economy, which are three aspects of energy consumption analysis in EnergyPlus software. To obtain the best moisture buffering performance from hygroscopic materials, we also simulated different cases including the laying area, ventilation strategy, thickness, and initial moisture content of different hygroscopic materials. The humidity fluctuation, with changes in the style of hygroscopic materials and usage conditions, of a room in a building can be analyzed by numerical simulation. This allows the determination of the best moisture buffering performance of the building structure. The results show that hygroscopic materials have great advantages in three energy saving aspects of building assessment. Hygroscopic materials can regulate indoor air humidity and reduce energy consumption. In addition, the entire life-cycle cost can be minimized. Lower rates of air exchange and larger usable areas can help enhance the level of performance of hygroscopic materials. The thickness and initial moisture content of hygroscopic materials have little impact on the moisture buffering value. This study strived to provide a theoretical basis and technical guidance for the production and installation of hygroscopic materials. It also promoted the passive materials market and the building’s energy savings. The best moisture buffering performance, evaluated at room level in this paper, can be obtained through real-world environmental simulation.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.