Experimental study of hygrothermal conditions in a wooden room for numerical comparisons

Abstract

The use of hygroscopic materials indoors has a significant impact on the hygrothermal balance of a room air. It affects both the temperature and the relative humidity. Numerical tools still lack of accuracy in predicting these parameters and some discrepancies are observed between their predictions and experimental measurements. It may be caused by the model itself or by incorrect inputs data (materials properties, occupancy schedule, ventilation rate, etc…) Therefore, an experimental study has been carried out at the room scale under real climate to obtain an experimental dataset as a basis for numerical comparisons. The hygrothermal parameters of the room air have been measured for different loads while all the inputs (heat and moisture generation, air exchange and materials properties) have been properly quantified. This article presents the experimental setup and some of the experimental data obtained.