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This study reports on using inverse analysis to experimentally estimate the in situ hygrothermal properties of a prefabricated lightweight building envelope. On-site temperature and relative humidity data were measured for one year in the walls of an occupied detached house. Field measurements were then used to solve inverse problems for identifying effective specific heat, thermal conductivity, vapor resistance factor, as well as heat and moisture transfer coefficients. Fully coupled heat and moisture phenomena were analyzed. The importance of estimating hygrothermal properties for reliable model calibration in hygrothermal performance assessment was addressed. For this purpose, the annual heat and moisture fluxes through the interior wall surface were calculated using the effective properties estimated in this study and reference values from the literature. The greatest deviations were found in cold periods for the thermal response and warm periods for the hygric response. Literature benchmarks were shown to potentially overestimate the annual heat loss by 30 % and the annual moisture transport by 24 %. The present study shows how in situ hygrothermal characterization enables more accurate predictions of the hygrothermal behavior of wall assemblies.
Ramos et al. (Mon,) studied this question.