Effect of Weather Data Selection on Simulated Moisture and Temperature Fields in Building Envelopes in Central Europe

Abstract

A series of computational simulations is carried out to investigate the effect of weather data selection on hygrothermal performance of several contemporary building enclosures. The simulated moisture and temperature fields are assessed by means of damage functions that were designed for the applications in cold regions. The weather data are represented by six different sets of boundary conditions in the form of test reference year, critical and positive weather years, together with the meteorological data measured by the authors during the time period of 2013-2015. The results of computational simulations and their interpretation in the applied damage functions are in accordance with the recent trend of temperature increase in Central Europe during the last few years. Contrary to many previous studies from this region, in terms of frost damage the effect of environment on all studied constructions is found negligible in 2014 and 2015.