Sensitivity of Low Sloped Roofs Designs to Initial Water and Air Leakage

Liquid water in low sloped roofs almost always causes problems. Roofs are designed only to control the migration of vapor, if at all. Small amounts of water leakage/penetration, may cause mold growth or catastrophic corrosion in current roofs systems. In a recent paper by the authors the effect of exterior surface emissive and absorptive properties was found to have a significant effect on the moisture performance of a roof that had a leak. Depending on the surface characteristics, roof systems can be designed to effectively manage water penetration, but at an energy cost. In the roofs system examined previously, air leakage was not included. In the present study, the authors reinvestigated the effect of water penetration and the influence of air leakage on the hygrothermal performance of a few selected roofs. The drying potential of a groove ventilated roof is examined. The performance concept is based on the fact that warming up of air in the groove increases it's ability to transport moisture to the outside. Solar radiation raises the temperature of air in the grooves and on average, during a sunny summer day 0.5 L of water can be ventilated out of the roof per 1m width of the roof. In this paper, one climatic condition was investigated; a hot and humid Climate representative of Houston, TX. The specific questions that the paper addresses are: What are the vapor and liquid control dynamic involved in the moisture migration of a roof in Houston TX? and how does airflow influence the performance of a roof that is initially wet ? A state-of-the-art numerical model was used to address these issues. Results showed that the drying potential depends on the ventilation rates. The roof system with ventilation grooves dried out faster from the initially wet stage than the roof without the ventilation grooves. The total increase in heat loss of the roof was found to be between 0 - 5 % depending on the thickness of the insulation. The ventilation can cool down the temperature of the roof in the middle of a hot and sunny day thus reducing the heat load to the inside

Integrated Hygrothermal Performance of Building Envelopes and Systems in Hot and Humid Climates

In hot and humid climates the interior and exterior environmental loads that building envelopes must respond to are larger than many other climatic conditions. Moisture-originated failures in low-rise residential buildings have put a significant pressure to change construction codes in North America. Solutions to moisture induced problems may be difficult when several interacting mechanisms of moisture transport are present. A new approach to building envelope durability assessment has been introduced in North America; a moisture engineering approach. This requires system information about the wall systems as constructed along with aging characteristics coupled with advanced modeling that 0 term allow the designer to predict the Iong-term performances of building envelope systems. This permits the comparison and ranking of individual building envelope systems with respect to total hygrothermal performance. Critical information can be obtained by investigating the one to one relationships of a building envelope to interior and exterior environments, however, the total behavior of the actual whole building is not accounted for. This paper goes one step further, by incorporating the individual hygrothermal performances of all walls, roof, floor and mechanical systems. The direct and indirect coupling of the building envelope and indoor environment with HVAC system are included in the analysis. The full house hygrothermal performance of an aerated concrete wall system are examined for a hot and humid climate. The hour by hour drying potential of each system was then numerically analyzed using weather conditions of Miami (hot and humid climate). The results clearly demonstrate the limited drying potential for the wall system in that climate. Furthermore, the selected exterior thermal insulation strategies and interior vapor control strategies in this study clearly show the critical behavior of the full house with respect to drying initial construction moisture. The results show the importance of the total hygrothermal behavior of the whole house to the coupling between the various envelope parts, interior and exterior environments and HVAC system. From these results moisture control strategies are identified for the whole house hygrothermal performance

The Effect of phase changes of moisture on the hygrothermal behaviour of walls subjected to hot and humid climates

Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye

Influence of waterproof coating on the hygrothermal performance of a brick facade wall system

Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye

Moisture transport in building envelopes using an approximate factorization solution method

Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye

Moisture conditions of non-ventilated, wood-based membrane roof components

Peer reviewed: NoNRC publication: Ye

The effect of waterproof coating on hygrothermal performance of a high rise wall structure

Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye

Numerical simulation of experimental freeze conditions in glass-fiber insulation

Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye

Effects of gestational age and prenatal and perinatal events on the coagulation status in premature infants

Objective: To study prospectively the effects of prematurity and perinatal events on the coagulation status of premature infants. Patients and main outcome measures: Blood samples from premature infants born before 37 gestational weeks were taken for analysis of coagulation factors II, V, VII, and X and platelet count. Results: A total of 125 premature infants, 71 boys, were studied at the median postnatal age of 40 minutes (range 12–100). The lowest median activities of coagulation factors II, V, VII, and X and the platelet count were observed, as expected, in infants (n = 21) born at 24–27 weeks gestation. Twin B (n = 14) had lower median activities of coagulation factors II, V, VII, and X than twin A. Infants with evidence of mild asphyxia (Apgar score at 5 minutes < 7 or cord pH < 7.26) had significantly (p < 0.05) lower levels of coagulation factors II, V, VII, and X and platelet counts than infants without asphyxia. Infants who were small for gestational age (SGA) had significantly (p < 0.05) lower levels of coagulation factors V and VII and platelet counts than infants of appropriate size for gestational age. Other prenatal and perinatal variables examined (sex, maternal hypertension and/or pre-eclampsia, antenatal steroid use, mode of delivery, Apgar scores) did not show any significant associations with coagulation status, which may be explained by the small number of infants studied. Conclusions: The data strongly suggest that there are distinct differences in specific coagulation tests in different patient populations, which could assist in the identification of extremely preterm, SGA, or asphyxiated preterm infants who may be susceptible to haemorrhagic problems perinatally