Hygrothermal simulation: Use for service life prediction and maintenance of façades

Abstract

The façade cladding of a building is a system responsible for providing and maintaining the comfort of the indoor environment as both thermal and acoustic insulation, as well as protecting the building envelope from weathering agents. Moreover, these systems have visual, aesthetic and cultural purposes. One of the most used façade coatings is ceramic tile, which is able to provide appropriate resistance to weather, but with an elevated rate of degradation. Such downside results are the loss of performance, quality and that the building may not reach its estimated service life. For this reason, the adaptation of architectural design to the natural environment is important. The present paper aims at measuring the action of weather agents on a sample of three buildings under construction in Brasília, Brazil. We used hygrothermal simulation software, WUFI Pro 6.0, to quantify the results for wind-driven rain, radiation and temperature on the north, south, east and west orientation of these buildings. The results of global radiation and wind-driven rain presented the same order of incidence, and the most critical values occurred during the dry period, for the north and west orientations. The variations of surface temperature in general reached maximum values on the north and west façades. A temperature gradient was also quantified, revealing a similar trend to the previous results. Furthermore, results were useful in identifying maintenance strategies and for service life prediction for the three buildings’ casings, and show advances in the design phase, by learning from nature and traditional construction techniques.