3D Simulation of Heat and Moisture Diffusion in Constructions

M. Bianchi Janetti, and F. Ochs
University of Innsbruck
Unit Building Physics
Innsbruck, Austria
Published in 2011

The simulation of heat and moisture transfer represents an essential resource in designing energy efficient buildings. In this paper a time-dependent wall model, consisting of several homogeneous domains, with third-type boundary conditions imposed on the surfaces, is implemented in the COMSOL Multiphysics environment. Temperature and moisture content is calculated inside the construction for different materials and the results are compared with those of commercial heat and moisture transfer programs showing good agreement.

The use of COMSOL Multiphysics compared to other commercially available programs is profitable, as it allows also the solution of more complex three-dimensional time-dependent problems. In this paper a model describing the heat and moisture transfer inside a wooden beam-end is addressed.