Evaluation of Mould Growth on Wall Surface in South China

Abstract

Mould contamination has negative consequences on the indoor air quality, and then on the health of the residents. It has an important significance for studying the mould contamination on building wall, especially in the south China. A dynamic mathematical model for simulating the coupled heat and moisture transfer within multilayer hygroscopic building wall was proposed. Temperature and humidity are critical for mould germinating. With the simulation results from the hydrothermal model, software WUFI-bio was used to evaluate the mould risk in the building. Once the humidity and temperature combination exceeds a limit, spore will germinate. Mould growth rate also was obtained, which was used for assessing risk level. The building with the red brick wall was studied as example, which is seated in Hengyang, Hunan province. Calculation period was a one year and time step was one hour. From the result, it can be found that there exists probability of mould growth in the red brick building in Hengyang, especially in winter and spring, and mould growth rate reaches the peak in February.