Moisture performance of mineral wool insulation products in highly insulated structures

Abstract

The effect of thermal insulation materials on the drying of structures has been studied in this paper. The drying times are especially important for structures having fresh concrete layers that have to be dried out before they can be coated and finished. The presented work includes numerical simulation studies carried out for general material properties of common thermal insulation materials. The simulation studies were carried out for typical concrete wall structures: Concrete sandwich elements, rendered exterior insulation and ventilated façades. The drying efficiency of the structures was simulated under northern climate conditions and typical indoor conditions for apartment houses. The main moisture source was the building moisture in concrete layers. The drying times were compared and the moisture flow rates between the material layers were studied. The results show that open fibre insulations materials, like stone wool, can improve significantly the drying of the inner concrete layer of the structure. However, the overall drying of the structure does not have a clear correlation with the insulation material.