The impact of climate change on building envelopes
Dealing with climate change has become inevitable when making long term decisions. Alongside the socio-economic impact that global warming has on our environment, the building sector becomes aware of its consequences on the built environment. Future heating and cooling demands, for example, are widely studied today. Moisture degradation and premature failure of the building envelope due to climate change does not receive equal focus. In particular, research on hygrothermal modelling regarding climate change remains limited. Further, no state-of-the-art approach exists to implement information on climate change in HAM simulation tools. Addressing this research gap, the goal of this project is to develop a methodology for assessing the future durability of building envelopes, as well as preliminary guidelines to account for climate change when performing HAM simulations. For both research institutions and the building industry.
Project Info
Research group: Building Physics
Start date: 2019
Researcher: Isabeau Vandemeulebroucke