Moisture Risks in Multi-layered Walls - Comparison of COMSOL Multiphysics® and WUFI®PLUS Models with Experimental Results

A. Ozolins[1], A. Jakovics[1]
[1]Laboratory for Mathematical Modelling of Technological and Environmental Processes, Riga, Latvia
Published in 2013

Moisture can cause serious damages in different building components therefore the heat and moisture calculation in building constructions are important tasks. In the current paper, two different multi-layered walls, mainly consisted of wooden materials and mineral wool, are analyzed. Risks of mould growth under Latvian climate conditions are estimated using 3 different approaches: experimental results in real test houses, commercial software WUFI®PLUS for simultaneous heat and moisture transfer in 3D buildings and COMSOL Multiphysics® for 1D case. Results obtained from this 3 approaches are compared. It is shown that calculations with COMSOL Multiphysics® give good fitting with experimental results.