Study on mould germination risk in hydroscopic building wall

Abstract

A dynamic mathematical model for simulating the coupled heat and moisture transfer within multilayer wall was proposed. The model was validated by comparing with representative benchmark tests. According to the mould germination conditions, a predictive evaluation method of mould germination risk in building wall was developed, which is based on transient distributions of temperature and relative humidity and their duration. Taking the red brick wall as example, the influence of relative humidity and temperature of indoor air on mould germination risk in wall was analyzed. And corresponding study was carried out for the major cities in Guangdong province. The results show that relative humidity of indoor air mainly influences the mould germination risk in the inner side of the wall. Relative humidity increase results in a rapid increase of the mould germination risk. The temperature of indoor air influences both the inner side and outer side of the wall. Temperature increase leads to increase of the mould germination risk in the inner side, but decrease in the outer side of the wall. Solar radiation has a great effect on mould germination risk, and less solar radiation results in a greater mould germination risk. In order to reduce the mould germination risk, different measure should be taken for different city and for different position in building wall.