Determination of indoor humidity profile using a whole-building hygrothermal model

During the design of a new building or retrofitting of an existing one, it is important to reliably assess the indoor humidity levels of the building as it can potentially affect the building envelope durability, occupants? comfort and health risks associated with mould growth. Simplistic assumptions of indoor humidity profiles, which ignore the dynamic coupling of the indoor environment and building enclosure, may lead to inaccurate conclusions about the indoor environment and moisture performance of the building enclosure. In this paper, a whole-building hygrothermal model called HAMFitPlus, which takes into account the dynamic interactions between building envelope components, mechanical systems and indoor heat and moisture generation mechanisms, is used to assess the indoor humidity condition of an existing occupied house. HAMFitPlus is developed on SimuLink development platform and integrates COMSOL multiphysics with MatLab. The basic input parameters of the model are discussed in detail, and its simulation results are presented. In general, the HAMFitPlus simulation results are in good agreement with the measured data.Au cours de la phase de la conception d?un b\ue2timent neuf ou de la r\ue9habilitation d?un b\ue2timent existant, il est important d?\ue9valuer de fa\ue7on fiable les niveaux d?humidit\ue9 int\ue9rieurs du b\ue2timent, car ceux-ci peuvent potentiellement influer sur la durabilit\ue9 de son enveloppe, sur le confort de ses occupants et sur les risques pour la sant\ue9 qui sont associ\ue9s \ue0 la formation de moisissure. Des suppositions simplistes des profils d?humidit\ue9 \ue0 l?int\ue9rieur qui ne tiennent pas compte du couplage dynamique de l?environnement int\ue9rieur et de l?enveloppe du b\ue2timent sont susceptibles de mener \ue0 des conclusions fauss\ue9es concernant l?environnement int\ue9rieur et la performance de l?enveloppe en mati\ue8re de r\ue9sistance \ue0 l?humidit\ue9. Dans ce document, un mod\ue8le hygrothermique de b\ue2timent int\ue9gral appel\ue9 HAMFitPlus, qui prend en compte les interactions dynamiques entre les composants de l?enveloppe, les syst\ue8mes m\ue9caniques et les m\ue9canismes g\ue9n\ue9rateurs de chaleur et d?humidit\ue9 \ue0 l?int\ue9rieur du b\ue2timent, est utilis\ue9 aux fins de l?\ue9valuation de l?humidit\ue9 int\ue9rieure d?une maison existante, occup\ue9e. Le mod\ue8le HAMFitPlus est \ue9labor\ue9 sur une plate-forme SimuLink et int\ue8gre la simulation multiphysique COMSOL Multiphysics et le langage MatLab. On traite en d\ue9tail des param\ue8tres d?entr\ue9e de base du mod\ue8le, et l?on pr\ue9sente ses r\ue9sultats de simulation. En g\ue9n\ue9ral, les r\ue9sultats de simulation de HAMFitPlus concordent de fa\ue7on satisfaisante avec les donn\ue9es mesur\ue9es.Erratum published in Volume 4, Issue 3, page 277, September 2011. DOI: 10.1007/s12273-011-0033-8Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye