COMPUTATIONAL SIMULATION OF HYGROTHERMAL PERFORMANCE OF PLASTERS WITH ENHANCED MOISTURE ACCUMULATION CAPABILITY

Abstract

Series of computational simulations are performed within this paper in order to investigate the hygrothermal response of several plasters with enhanced accumulation properties. The newly developed plasters are modified from the reference sample by adding various amounts of super absorbent polymers. Then, the basic physical, thermal and hygric properties are determined in the laboratory conditions and subsequently used as an input parameter in the computational simulations. The simulation output showed that even a thin layer of exterior and interior plaster may significantly affect the hygrothermal performance of the entire building envelope due to increased moisture and thermal buffering of the surface layers. Differences in relative humidity distribution across the studied construction were generally up to 10 % between individual plasters, differences of temperature distribution were mostly negligible, except for the cases when sudden changes of surface temperature were observed. Then, the thermal buffering was evident and the differences of temperature in surface layers were up to 4°C among studied plasters.