A round robin campaign on the hygric properties of porous building materials

Chi Feng*, Ana Sofia Guimarães, Nuno Ramos, Lixin Sun, Dariusz Gawin, Piotr Konca, Jianhua Zhao, John Grunewald, Kurt Kielsgaard Hansen, Christopher Hall, Maria Fredriksson, Zbyšek Pavlík, Hans Janssen

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalConference articleResearchpeer-review

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    Abstract

    The reliable determination of the hygric properties of porous building materials is important. In earlier round robin campaigns large discrepancies of measured hygric properties were found among different labs. Later studies indicated that differences in lab conditions and more importantly, personnel’s operation procedures and data processing methods, might have the greatest impact. To gain further insight, a new round robin campaign has been launched by KU Leuven (Belgium), to which another eight institutes contributed. A relatively stable and homogeneous ceramic brick is tested, and 3 standard tests are performed: the vacuum saturation test, the capillary absorption test and the cup test. During the campaign, two rounds of measurements are performed. In the 1st round, tests are performed according to participants’ respective experimental protocols. Next, a strict and detailed common protocol is prescribed. This paper reports on the results obtained in the 1st round of measurements. Results show that not much progress has been made since the EC HAMSTAD project: the vacuum saturation test leads to the most consistent results, while the cup test produces the largest discrepancies, most probably originating from sample sealing and humidity control.
    Original languageEnglish
    Article number2011
    JournalMATEC Web of Conferences
    Volume282
    Number of pages6
    ISSN2261-236X
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2019
    Event4th Central European Symposium on Building Physics - Prague, Czech Republic
    Duration: 2 Sept 20195 Sept 2019
    Conference number: 4
    https://www.cesbp2019.org/

    Conference

    Conference4th Central European Symposium on Building Physics
    Number4
    Country/TerritoryCzech Republic
    CityPrague
    Period02/09/201905/09/2019
    Internet address

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