Laboratory testing for daily hygroscopic inertia assessment

Abstract

This article describes an extensive experimental campaign aiming at the characterization of the moisture buffering capacity of interior finishing system and the assessment of the hygroscopic inertia of a room. The MBV - Moisture Buffer Value is evaluated for gypsum based products finished with different coatings. The assessment of hygroscopic inertia at room level is implemented using a flux chamber designed specifically for this experiment. A daily hygroscopic inertia index, Ih,d, is defined using MBV as a basis for the assessment of materials contribution to the buffering capacity of a room. The correlation between that index and peak dampening is proved using the presented experimental results.