TY - JOUR
T1 - Hygric properties of porous building materials (VI)
T2 - a round robin campaign
AU - Feng, Chi
AU - Guimarães, Ana Sofia
AU - Ramos, Nuno
AU - Sun, Lixin
AU - Gawin, Dariusz
AU - Konca, Piotr
AU - Hall, Christopher
AU - Zhao, Jianhua
AU - Hirsch, Hauke
AU - Grunewald, John
AU - Fredriksson, Maria
AU - Hansen, Kurt Kielsgaard
AU - Pavlík, Zbyšek
AU - Janssen, Hans
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - Hygric properties of porous building materials are important for hygrothermal analysis. Their experimental determination is however not always reliable, shown by the discrepant results from different laboratories on the same materials. In this study, a recent round robin campaign initiated by KU Leuven (Belgium) and participated in by eight institutes from different countries is reported. Ceramic brick was selected as the target material. The bulk density and open porosity from vacuum saturation tests, the capillary absorption coefficient and capillary moisture content from capillary absorption tests, and the vapor permeability from cup tests were measured. Results were analyzed statistically and compared with a previous round robin project, EC HAMSTAD. The reproducibility errors for determining the capillary absorption coefficient were noticeably reduced when compared with the EC HAMSTAD project, and the different laboratories in the present study obtained similar results from vacuum saturation tests and capillary absorption tests without a common protocol. For cup tests, large inter-laboratory discrepancies still exist. However, with a stringent common protocol different laboratories achieved consistent results. For all properties a common protocol did not change the average results of all laboratories.
AB - Hygric properties of porous building materials are important for hygrothermal analysis. Their experimental determination is however not always reliable, shown by the discrepant results from different laboratories on the same materials. In this study, a recent round robin campaign initiated by KU Leuven (Belgium) and participated in by eight institutes from different countries is reported. Ceramic brick was selected as the target material. The bulk density and open porosity from vacuum saturation tests, the capillary absorption coefficient and capillary moisture content from capillary absorption tests, and the vapor permeability from cup tests were measured. Results were analyzed statistically and compared with a previous round robin project, EC HAMSTAD. The reproducibility errors for determining the capillary absorption coefficient were noticeably reduced when compared with the EC HAMSTAD project, and the different laboratories in the present study obtained similar results from vacuum saturation tests and capillary absorption tests without a common protocol. For cup tests, large inter-laboratory discrepancies still exist. However, with a stringent common protocol different laboratories achieved consistent results. For all properties a common protocol did not change the average results of all laboratories.
KW - Porous building material,
KW - Hygric property
KW - Vacuum saturation
KW - Capillary absorption
KW - Vapor diffusion
KW - Round robin
KW - Common protocol
U2 - 10.1016/j.buildenv.2020.107242
DO - 10.1016/j.buildenv.2020.107242
M3 - Journal article
SN - 0360-1323
VL - 185
JO - Building and Environment
JF - Building and Environment
M1 - 107242
ER -