Comparative Analysis of Hygrothermal Behaviour of the Exterior Walls in Transient Regime

Abstract

Energy conservation and an intelligent use of resources are among primary objectives in the contemporary society. The decrease of energy consumption in buildings has many benefits both on operating costs and environment preservation too. During the buildings life-cycle, the energy consumption for operation, in winter through heating and in summer through ventilation, is more important than the energy used in the construction phase, requiring passive measures from the design stage. The paper presents the results of a study of the behaviour, in a variable regime, of the external wall with different structures, to the mass transfer and temperature variations. The influence of the placement of interior or exterior thermal insulation layers on the hygrothermal behaviour of the envelope element was determined by means of WUFI® Pro software, which takes into account the built-in moisture, driving rain, solar radiation, long-wave radiation, capillary transport, and summer condensation.