ISSN: 1546-962X
Published Online: 29 May 2007
Page Count: 12

Moisture Buffer Value of Building Materials
Rode, Carsten
Assoc. Prof., Technical University of Denmark,

Peuhkuri, Ruut
Research Scientist and Senior Research Scientist, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland,

Time, Berit
Research Director, SINTEF Building and Infrastructure,

Svennberg, Kaisa
Researcher, Lund Institute of Technology,

Ojanen, Tuomo
Research Scientist and Senior Research Scientist, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland,

(Received 5 February 2006; accepted 2 May 2007)

Abstract

When building materials are in contact with indoor air they have some capacity to moderate the variations of indoor humidity in occupied buildings. But, so far, there has been a lack of a standardized quantity to characterize the moisture buffering capability of materials. It has been the objective of a recent Nordic project to define such a quantity, and to declare it in the form of a NORDTEST method. The Moisture Buffer Value is the figure that has been developed in the project as a way to appraise the moisture buffer effect of materials, and the value is described in the paper. Also explained is a test protocol which expresses how materials should be tested for determination of their Moisture Buffer Value. Finally, the paper presents some of the results of a round robin test on various typical building materials that has been carried out in the project.

Keywords:
building materials, moisture transport, humidity, buffer effect, indoor climate, material properties

Paper ID: JAI100369
DOI: 10.1520/JAI100369
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