Initial credibility analysis of a numerical model of heat and moisture transfer in porous building materials

Abstract

The work presents initial credibility analysis of a numerical model of heat and moisture transfer in porous building materials. Single moist brick located in an air flow duct was considered. Only one wall of the brick was in contact with air and only through this boundary heat and moisture were exchanged between air and brick. Developed model considered dry air, vapor water, liquid water and dry solid material. Local non-equilibrium between different moisture phases was assumed. The numerical model was implemented with the aid of commercial software ANSYS Fluent and by using its advance customization interface, i.e., the User-Define-Function, User-Define-Scalar and User-Define-Memory. Furthermore, experiments were carried out on specially developed stand to compare measured and simulated temperature variations in the brick. The measured and predicted temperature plateau due to evaporation of liquid moisture in the brick had similar level. However, calculated drying time was significantly overestimated comparing to experimental data.