Moisture estimation in building materials with a simple procedure

Abstract A lot of research is carried out in water flow through soils, where soils are treated as porous media. Since many building materials can be also considered as porous media the same theories and methods can be applied. The aim of this research is to provide an easy laboratory method to estimate vertical moisture profiles in building materials. The method is based on measurements of porosity, accurate measurements of the sample dimensions. During the experimental procedure, visual inspection of the profile length θ(x) and measurements of inlet water as a function of time are monitored. From the previously obtained data, the transformed profile is generated by treating the whole process as an optimization problem. The method was applied to two different building materials namely limestone and brick and the results were verified through another experimental procedure using gamma ray (γ-ray) absorption. The results show that this method can be used to estimate transformed profile and consequently θ(x) and θ(t) profiles. It is heavily based on visual observations of the profile length utilizing few and inexpensive equipment with quite accurate results. Accuracy was better than 2.5% regarding sorptivity calculated from γ-ray produced λ(θ) profiles on one hand and by the proposed method on the other.