Abstract
In July 2020, this journal published “A User-Friendly Tool to Characterize the Moisture Transfer in Porous Building Materials: FLoW1D”. That article presents and applies a forward-Euler-based tool, implemented in Visual Basic for Applications in Excel, for simulating moisture transfer in building materials. In that tool, the building materials’ hygric properties are described via the unimodal van Genuchten and Mualem equations. All parameters needed therein are inversely identified from only a capillary absorption experiment. These are three feats that, if valid, would strongly progress the state-of-the-art on moisture transfer simulation, hygric property description, and hygric property characterisation. This critique voices severe doubts, however, about the applicability of FLoW1D, the adequacy of the van Genuchten-Mualem equations, and (most fundamentally) the uniqueness of the inverse characterisation.
Highlights
In July 2020, this journal published the article “A User-Friendly Tool to Characterize the Moisture Transfer in Porous Building Materials: FLoW1D” [1]
The authors present an Excel-based tool for the numerical simulation of moisture transfer in porous building materials, employing finite differences for the spatial discretisation and forward Euler for the temporal discretisation
Their ‘conclusions’ say that “FLoW1D. Allows both the simulation of two WAC tests and the estimation of hygric parameters with robustness and ease”, averring the robust nature of their approach in general and their tool in particular. These feats—the forward-Euler-based moisture transfer simulation of building materials wherein the hygric properties were universally described with unimodal van Genuchten-Mualem equations, the parameters of which could be inversely identified exclusively based on a capillary absorption test—are impressive successes for research on moisture transfer simulation, hygric property description, and hygric property characterisation for porous building materials
Summary
In July 2020, this journal published the article “A User-Friendly Tool to Characterize the Moisture Transfer in Porous Building Materials: FLoW1D” [1]. The four remaining parameters are obtained via inverse identification exclusively based on a capillary absorption test In their ‘featured application’, the authors declare that “FLoW1D is a numerical tool that is designed as support for the analysis of the conventional experimental tests for the hygric characterization of porous building materials”, alleging its general applicability for building materials. Their ‘conclusions’ say that “FLoW1D allows both the simulation of two WAC tests and the estimation of hygric parameters with robustness and ease”, averring the robust nature of their approach in general and their tool in particular These feats—the forward-Euler-based moisture transfer simulation of building materials wherein the hygric properties were universally described with unimodal van Genuchten-Mualem equations, the parameters of which could be inversely identified exclusively based on a capillary absorption test—are impressive successes for research on moisture transfer simulation, hygric property description, and hygric property characterisation for porous building materials.
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