Improved Suction Technique for the Characterization of Construction Materials

Lisbeth Garbrecht Thygesen (Invited author), Kurt Kielsgaard Hansen (Invited author)

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingArticle in proceedingsResearchpeer-review

    Abstract

    The suction technique is a method from soil science that is used for the study of moisture storage capacity in porous construction materials at high relative humidity levels (above approximately 93%). The samples to be studied are placed in a pressurized container (an extractor) on a water saturated ceramic disc or membrane. The pressure corresponding to a certain relative humidity level is established and moisture is expelled from the samples until moisture equilibrium is reached. This paper presents two adjustments to this method and their applicability. The first adjustment is a new procedure for determining the equilibrium moisture content of samples during the experiment. The method (refered to as the balance method) is to simply keep track of all water entering and leaving the system and use these data to estimate the moisture content of the samples. The advantage of this approach is that the experiment does not need to be stopped and restarted for each relative humidity level tested. The main disadvantage of the method is that the estimation of the moisture content in the samples depends on a correct estimation of the moisture content of the ceramic disc. The second adjustment is the development of a pressure regulation system that keeps the pressure constant (±0.015 bar) within an extractor for weeks.
    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationHeat-air-moisture Transport: Measurements on building materials
    Number of pages111
    Place of PublicationWest Conshohocken, PA, USA
    PublisherAmerican Society for Testing and Materials
    Publication date2007
    Pages12-20
    ISBN (Print)978-0-8031-3422-5
    Publication statusPublished - 2007
    EventHeat-air-moisture Transport: Measurements on building materials - Toronto, Canada
    Duration: 1 Jan 2006 → …
    Conference number: 1

    Conference

    ConferenceHeat-air-moisture Transport: Measurements on building materials
    Number1
    CityToronto, Canada
    Period01/01/2006 → …
    SeriesSTP
    Number1495

    Keywords

    • moisture content
    • porous construction materials
    • Suction technique
    • moisture storage capacity

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