Testing of a new non-equilibrium heat and moisture transfer model in porous building materials

In this paper the new non-equilibrium model of heat and moisture transfer in heterogenous building materials is presented and tested. The new hygro-thermal model differs from the other approaches which are based on the classical assumption of instantaneous local mechanical, thermal and hygric equilibrium between vapour and water in the pores in building materials. Instead of this assumption the model uses the finite rate of transition of moisture from the liquid to the vapour state and vice versa while still keeping mechanical and thermal equilibrium between components of the medium. The linear kinetics of this transition is applied. The assessment of the model correctness is also performed in the paper. In the first step of the testing the model predictions were successfully verified with the reference data obtained numerically. Then the model was validated using reference data obtained experimentally. Finally, the influence of volumetric mass transfer coefficient between vapour and water as well as water and vapour in pores is investigated, i.e., kinetics of the vapour-water/water-vapour transition is analysed. During the model testing traditional building material were considered (i.e., ceramic brick). However, the model may be used for investigation of hygro-thermal behaviour of bio-based materials.