Abstract:
In this thesis, a numerical model was developed to simulate the coupled heat, air and moisture
transport in unsaturated porous materials. The state of the art knowledge of heat and mass
transfer in unsaturated porous media was applied. The major features of this model include
multidimensional transient coupling hygrothermal transport and air convection integrated in
hygrothermal simulation through Darcy-Boussinesq approximation. Based on energy and
mass conservation equations, nonlinear partial differential equations are developed.
Measurable physical properties involved in present modeling are dependent on the
temperature and the capillary pressure which are considered as driving potentials. A
commercial finite element solver was chosen to solve the governing partial differential
equations of hygrothermal transport. A set of benchmarks was presented in this work to fit the
model's ability to predict the hygrothermal behavior of unsaturated porous materials. The
other key aspect of this work is the three-dimensional simulation of heat and moisture
transport in the multilayered building envelope. The purpose being to limit energy loss and
prevent the building envelope from moisture-related damages.
