ISSN: 0090-3973
Published Online: 21 September 2007
Page Count: 7

Moisture Buffering Capacities of Five North American Building Materials
Wu, Yang
Graduate Student and Professor, Department of Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Concordia University,

Fazio, Paul
Graduate Student and Professor, Department of Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Concordia University,

Kumaran, Mavinkal K. (Kumar)
Principal Research Officer, National Research Council Canada, ON

(Received 9 May 2007; accepted 14 August 2007)

Abstract

The moisture buffering capacities of five building materials which are widely used in North America was investigated experimentally. An experiment to quantify the moisture buffering capacity of building materials was developed. Hygrothermal properties of these building materials, reported in this paper, include the density, thermal conductivity, equilibrium moisture content, water vapor permeability, water absorption coefficient, and air permeability. Moisture buffering test results showed that among these materials the fiberboard product has the best moisture buffering capacity, whereas plywood has the lowest among the building products tested.

Keywords:
moisture buffering capacity, hygrothermal material property, North American, building material

Paper ID: JTE101228
DOI: 10.1520/JTE101228
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