How to predict wind driven rain in a changing climate?

Abstract

We are nowadays confronted with changes in moisture-related durability problems arising from climate change. As one example, building facades of historical buildings that before were hardly exposed to frost damage, may in future be exposed to an increase in frost-thaw cycling leading to a higher risk for moisture-related damage. An essential step in hygrothermal and durability analysis is the prediction of wind-driven rain (WDR). A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) Eulerian multiphase model provides WDR catch ratio charts. Building further on this work, methods are developed to predict WDR loads and moisture damage risks.