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Building Simulation 2011, 4(1): 61-78 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12273-011-0031-x
Research Article | Issue | Published: 04 December 2011

Determination of indoor humidity profile using a whole-building hygrothermal model

Show Author's Information Fitsum Tariku1( ),  Kumar Kumaran2,  Paul Fazio3
British Columbia Institute of Technology, 3700 Willingdon Ave., Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada, V5G 3H2
National Research Council, Institute for Research in Construction, 1200 Montreal rd., Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1A 0R6
Concordia University, Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, 1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, H3G 1M8
Keywords:
energy efficiency, indoor environment, coupled HAM analysis, whole-building hygrothermal modeling, building envelope performance
An erratum to this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1007/s12273-011-0033-8
Cite this article:
Tariku F, Kumaran K, Fazio P. Determination of indoor humidity profile using a whole-building hygrothermal model. Building Simulation, 2011, 4(1): 61-78. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12273-011-0031-x
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Abstract Full text About this article

During the design of a new building or retrofitting of an existing one, it is important to reliably assess the indoor humidity levels of the building as it can potentially affect the building envelope durability, occupants’ comfort and health risks associated with mould growth. Simplistic assumptions of indoor humidity profiles, which ignore the dynamic coupling of the indoor environment and building enclosure, may lead to inaccurate conclusions about the indoor environment and moisture performance of the building enclosure. In this paper, a whole-building hygrothermal model called HAMFitPlus, which takes into account the dynamic interactions between building envelope components, mechanical systems and indoor heat and moisture generation mechanisms, is used to assess the indoor humidity condition of an existing occupied house. HAMFitPlus is developed on SimuLink development platform and integrates COMSOL multiphysics with MatLab. The basic input parameters of the model are discussed in detail, and its simulation results are presented. In general, the HAMFitPlus simulation results are in good agreement with the measured data.


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About this article

Determination of indoor humidity profile using a whole-building hygrothermal model

Show Author's information Fitsum Tariku1( ), Kumar Kumaran2, Paul Fazio3
British Columbia Institute of Technology, 3700 Willingdon Ave., Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada, V5G 3H2
National Research Council, Institute for Research in Construction, 1200 Montreal rd., Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1A 0R6
Concordia University, Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, 1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, H3G 1M8

Abstract

During the design of a new building or retrofitting of an existing one, it is important to reliably assess the indoor humidity levels of the building as it can potentially affect the building envelope durability, occupants’ comfort and health risks associated with mould growth. Simplistic assumptions of indoor humidity profiles, which ignore the dynamic coupling of the indoor environment and building enclosure, may lead to inaccurate conclusions about the indoor environment and moisture performance of the building enclosure. In this paper, a whole-building hygrothermal model called HAMFitPlus, which takes into account the dynamic interactions between building envelope components, mechanical systems and indoor heat and moisture generation mechanisms, is used to assess the indoor humidity condition of an existing occupied house. HAMFitPlus is developed on SimuLink development platform and integrates COMSOL multiphysics with MatLab. The basic input parameters of the model are discussed in detail, and its simulation results are presented. In general, the HAMFitPlus simulation results are in good agreement with the measured data.

Keywords: energy efficiency, indoor environment, coupled HAM analysis, whole-building hygrothermal modeling, building envelope performance

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Publication history
Copyright
Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 25 November 2010
Revised: 21 February 2011
Accepted: 22 February 2011
Published: 04 December 2011
Issue date: March 2011

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge Dr. Wahid Maref, Ms. Madeleine Rousseau, Mr. Steve Cornick and Dr. Nadi Said for kindly sharing the building survey and experimental data with us.

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