Evaluation of moisture buffering capacity of interior surface materials and furniture in a full-scale experimental investigation

From the experimental characterization of the hygrothermal properties of straw-clay mixtures to the numerical assessment of their buffering potential

“…The results from the MBV test are not very representative of the buffering effect at room scale and it has been acknowledged in several studies [30][31][32][33] that the hygric response of a room depends both on the moisture buffering capacity of indoor finishing materials and on the air change rate. However, the latter is not taken into account in MBV tests.…”

“…For example, vapour barriers are often used in lightweight buildings, which strongly impact the moisture balance at room scale. Therefore, the hygric response of a room should be determined by considering the whole wall assembly, and not only the indoor siding, unless a vapour barrier is considered as in [31]. Finally, it should be mentioned that the outdoor conditions also have an influence.…”

“…However, it would be harder to distinguish the influence of the materials from the outdoor conditions and limit the conclusions to specific climates. Therefore, some authors prefer to consider constant conditions, for both experimental and numerical studies [28,31,32]. For the same reason, the influence of sun, wind and rain was not taken into account ;…”

“… The Maximum Accumulated Buffering Value (MAMBV) was proposed in [31] and relies on a moisture balance achieved at the room scale.…”

Influence of moisture load profiles on moisture buffering potential and moisture residuals of three groups of hygroscopic materials

“…Holm and Lengsfeld [15] reported in their full-scale experiment that the influence of coating on the moisture buffering effect of the painted gypsum board is more significant under shorter moisture load than that under longer moisture load when compared to un-coated gypsum board. A two-room full-scale experimental investigation on the moisture buffering carried out by the authors [16] showed that the moisture buffering potential of the wood paneling was more significantly influenced by the moisture loading profiles than that of the uncoated gypsum board. In this experiment, a significant amount of moisture residual was observed in the wood paneling after the first few daily cycles.…”