Building and Environment 37 (2002) 313–318

www.elsevier.com/locate/buildenv

Vapour condensation and moisture accumulation in porous building

wall
Jerzy Wyrwa l∗ , Andrzej Marynowicz
Technical University of Opole, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Katowicka 48, 45-061 Opole, Poland

Received 29 March 2000; received in revised form 2 August 2000; accepted 23 November 2000

Abstract

Simultaneous one-dimensional heat and vapour transfer with condensation in a porous wall is analytically investigated. Spatially
steady-state distribution of accumulated moisture, less than the critical content, is described. Closed-form analytical expressions for the
temperature, condensation rate and moisture content are obtained. The presented model requires material properties which are relatively
simple and easy to determine. The results of the paper are illustrated with an example of multilayer building wall under climatic conditions.
c 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Heat; Vapour; Condensation; Porous material; Critical moisture content

1. Introduction Shapiro and Motakef [10] proposed an analytical solution

Simultaneous heat and vapour transfer with condensation
in porous materials is of practical importance in applications
in civil engineering. The transport of vapour across building
walls and its possible condensation increases the thermal
conductivity of the building porous materials and may cause
structural damage.
The theoretical and experimental study of the heat and
moisture transfer in building walls has been the target of a
lot of important research work. We can refer to the works of
Andersson [1], Budaiwi et al. [2], De Freitas et al. [3], Kiessl
[4], Kohonen [5], KAunzel and Kiessl [6], as well as Pedersen
[7]. However, very little work exists on the particular subject
of vapour condensation in porous materials.
Water-vapour condensation within a porous wall has been
observed, particularly when the wall is exposed to large tem-
perature diCerences and high humidity environments. This
phenomenon was Drst rigorously studied by Ogniewicz and
Tien [8] where the coupling between temperature and con-
centration of condensing vapour was taken into account. In
a reference by Motekef and El-Masri [9], one-dimensional
transport of heat and mass with phase change in a porous
slab was studied, and analytical solutions for the cases of
immobile and mobile condensate were obtained. Recently
∗Corresponding author. Tel.=fax: +48-077-456-50-84.
E-mail address: wyrwal@ss5.po.opole.pl (J. Wyrwal).
for a large class of transient problems, and compared their
results with experimental data.
The present paper uses the approach of Motakef and
El-Masri [9] for the problem of one-dimensional Jow of
heat and diCusion of vapour in a porous wall. It is assumed
that the moisture content in the wet zone is lower than the
critical one and, as a consequence of this, the liquid water
is practically immobile. This leads to very simple relations
describing the temperature and moisture proDles as well as
the condensation rate in the wet zone. The major advantage
of the proposed solution is its relative ease in determining
the moisture accumulation due to vapour condensation for
diCerent materials in diCerent conditions.
2. Formulation of the problem
Consider the one-dimensional transfer of heat and vapour
in a homogeneous porous wall (Fig. 1), the boundaries of
which are exposed to two diCerent environments: an indoor
environment with temperature Ti and humidity ’i , and an
outdoor environment with temperature Te and humidity ’e .
Under winter conditions the indoor temperature is higher
than the outdoor one, and vapour diCuses towards the colder
boundary.
For a constant pressure system, the concentration of satu-
ration vapour is a unique function of temperature. Therefore,

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314 J. Wyrwal, A. Marynowicz / Building and Environment 37 (2002) 313–318
Nomenclature
Csat concentration of saturation vapour (kg=kg)
D vapour diCusion coeMcient in the air (m2 =s)
Dp vapour permeability (kg=m s Pa)
K dimensionless coeMcient (dimensionless)
l width of the condensation zone (m)
L latent heat of condensation (J=kg)
psat saturation vapour pressure (Pa)
R condensation rate (kg=(m3 s))
R thermal resistance (m2 K=W)
Rmax maximum condensation rate (kg=(m3 s))
Rv gas constant of vapour (J=(kg K))
T temperature (K)
Te exterior temperature (K)
Ti interior temperature (K)
Tl temperature of exterior surface of the wet
zone (K)
T0 temperature of interior surface of the wet
zone (K)
W moisture content (m3 =m3 )
Wcap capillary saturation (m3 =m3 )
the vapour saturation–concentration curve in the wall is
deDned by the temperature distribution. Depending on
the values of the prescribed boundary conditions, the
vapour concentration proDle may touch the saturation–
concentration curve in the wall. The diCusing vapour would
then undergo a phase change and condense in some region
of the wall. With the relative humidity at the boundaries less
than 100%, condensation occurs over the wet zone, sepa-
rated from the boundaries by two dry zones as illustrated in
Fig. 1.
The condensation of vapour in the wet zone can be con-
sidered to be simultaneously a vapour sink, water source
and heat source. Hence, three processes of vapour diCu-
sion, vapour condensation and heat conduction are coupled
through the condensation rate. The vapour concentration,
moisture content and temperature proDles in the wet zone are
obtained by the simultaneous solution of the three coupled
conservative equations for heat, vapour and liquid water.
At moisture contents less than the critical one, conden-
sate is in a pendular state [11] and does not exhibit any ten-
dency to migrate. Beyond the critical moisture content, as
the pendular drops coalesce and the capillary pores are wet-
ted, condensate is propelled by surface tension forces from
wetter to drier regions.
In the absence of moisture migration in the wet zone, the
system of diCerential equations for heat and vapour transfer
may be written as


d dT
 + LR = 0; x ∈ (0; l); (1)
dx dx
 
d dCsat (T )
a D − R = 0; x ∈ (0; l); (2)
dx dx
Wcr critical moisture content (m3 =m3 )
Wmax maximum moisture content (m3 =m3 )
W0 initial moisture distribution (m3 =m3 )
t time (s)
tcr time at which critical value is reached (s)
x co-ordinate (m)
Z thermal resistance (m2 s Pa=kg)
Greek letters
e exterior surface heat transfer coeMcient
(W=(m2 K))
i interior surface heat transfer coeMcient
(W=(m2 K))
 porosity of the material (m3 =m3 )
 thermal conductivity (W=(m K))
 material density (kg=m3 )
a air density (kg=m3 )
w liquid density (kg=m3 )
’e exterior relative humidity (dimensionless)
’i interior relative humidity (dimensionless)
where x is the co-ordinate (m),  the coeMcient of heat con-
duction (W=(m K)), T the temperature (K), L the latent heat
of condensation (J=kg), R the condensation rate (kg=(m3 s)),
l the width of the condensation zone (m), a the air den-
sity (kg=m3 ),  the porosity of the material (m3 =m3 ), D the
vapour diCusion coeMcient in the air (m2 =s), and Csat the
concentration of saturation vapour (kg=kg).
Eq. (1) is subjected to the following boundary conditions:

T0 at x = 0;
T= (3)
Tl at x = l;
where T0 is the temperature of interior surface of the wet
zone (K), and Tl the temperature of exterior surface of the
wet zone (K).
The problem of calculation of the location of wet zone,
and the temperatures of its surfaces has been solved by
Motakef and El-Masri [9].
In the process considered, there Drst occurs a relatively
short initial transient stage in which the temperature and
vapour concentration Delds are developing within the porous
slab. During this phase a very small quantity of liquid water
is accumulated in the porous material (Fig. 2). The initial
transient stage is of little signiDcance due to its relatively
short duration and, therefore, is not studied here. Condensa-
tion of vapour is deDned here as the accumulation of liquid
water beyond the phase described above.
Beyond the initial transient time, the temperature and
vapour concentration proDles remain invariant with time,
vapour condenses continuously in the wet zone, the conden-
sate accumulates with time, and for moisture contents less
than critical the transport of water in liquid phase within the
 J. Wyrwal, A. Marynowicz / Building and Environment 37 (2002) 313–318 315

Table 1
Suctional parameters for selected building materials [7]

Material Density  Critical Capillary

(kg=m3 ) moisture saturation Wcap
content Wcr (m3 =m3 )
(m3 =m3 )
Ordinary concrete 2400 0.095 0.15
Common brick 1700 0.034 0.30
Gypsum 950 0.095 0.19
Aerated concrete 500 0.200 0.35
Glass wool 50 0.950 0.01
Exp. polystyrene 30 0.500 0.09

3. Solution method

Fig. 1. Porous slab exposed to two humid environments. Consider a wet zone of some thickness and boundary
temperatures as presented in Fig. 1. The energy and vapour
continuity equations are coupled through the condensation
rate term. By eliminating this term, Eqs. (1) and (2) are
reduced as follows:
 
d dT dCsat (T )
 + a DL = 0: (6)
dx dx dx
Condensation occurs throughout the width of the wet region
and, hence, the vapour concentration is a unique function
of the temperature distribution. Therefore, Eq. (6) is the
second-order non-linear diCerential equation in terms of only
temperature.
Fig. 2. Theoretical evaluation of moisture content. Let us take into account the following relation:
psat (T )
Csat (T ) = ; (7)
a Rv T
capillaries can be ignored. Therefore, conservation equation where psat is the saturation vapour pressure (Pa), and Rv the
for liquid water simpliDes to (Ogniewicz and Tien [8]) gas constant of vapour (J=(kg K)).
dW Making use of the Clausius–Clapeyron equation to ex-
w = R; x ∈ (0; l); W ¡ Wcr ; (4)
dt press the vapour pressure derivative
where w is the liquid density (kg=m3 ), W the moisture dpsat Lpsat
= ; (8)
content (m3 =m3 ), t the time (s), and Wcr the critical moisture dT Rv T 2
content (m3 =m3 ), with the initial condition it can be easily veriDed that the energy equation (6) takes
the form of heat transfer equation
W = W0 (x) at t = 0; (5)  
d dT
where W0 is the initial moisture distribution in the wet zone k(T ) = 0: (9)
dx dx
(m3 =m3 ).
The critical moisture content for selected building mate- The apparent thermal conductivity [12] used in Eq. (9) is
rials is given in Table 1. deDned in the following way:


Motakef and El-Masri [9] deDned the solution which satis- Dp L2 psat (T ) Rv
k(T ) =  + 1 − T ; (10)
Des the above conditions as the Drst spatially steady regime. Rv T2 L
In such a regime the temperature and vapour concentration
where the vapour permeability is of the form
proDles are at steady state. There is no condensate motion.
D
The moisture content in the wet zone increases linearly with Dp = : (11)
time, and the location of the wet region is spatially Dxed and Rv T
determined by the continuity of heat and vapour Juxes at The apparent thermal conductivity includes the heat
the wet–dry boundaries. When the local value of moisture conducted across the wet zone in the absence of condensa-
content reaches its critical level, the capillary forces lead tion and heat released by condensation. Fig. 3 shows appar-
to the migration of condensate into the dry regions and the ent thermal conductivity curves vs. temperature for selected
subsequent expansion of the wet zone. building materials (with properties shown in Table 2).
316 J. Wyrwal, A. Marynowicz / Building and Environment 37 (2002) 313–318

where coeMcients C1 and C2 are expressed by the relations

K −1
C1 = C2 ;
l
T 0 − Tl
C2 = − : (16)
ln K
The solution of the temperature Deld will, therefore, take
the form
T 0 − Tl  x 
T (x) = T0 − ln (K − 1) + 1 (17)
ln K l
and is logarithmically dependent on x. The obtained analyt-
ical result (17) is easy to evaluate, and shows in the simple
equation how the solution changes in response to the change
in all physical variables.
The condensation rate per unit volume can be obtained
Fig. 3. Apparent thermal conductivity vs. temperature for selected building from Eqs. (1) and (17) as follows:
materials.
K 2 Rmax
R(x) = ; (18)
Table 2
{[(K − 1)x=l + 1]}2
Transport coeMcients for selected building materials [13] where the maximum of condensation rate can be written as
Material Density Heat Vapour (T0 − Tl ) (K − 1)2
 (kg=m3 ) conductivity  permeability Dp Rmax ≡ R(l) = − : (19)
(W=(m K)) (kg=(m s Pa)) l2 L K 2 ln K
Common brick 1800 0.910 29 × 10−12 The condensation rate exhibits a strong dependence on the
Cellular concrete 500 0.220 63 × 10−12 ratio of the temperature drop across the wet zone to the
Cement–particle board 450 0.160 104 × 10−12 square of that zone width. Therefore, if that ratio increases,
Mineral wool 100 0.055 133 × 10−12
the condensation rate will increase as well.
Glass Dbre mat 80 0.050 167 × 10−12
The condensate distribution in the wet zone is obtained
by integration of Eq. (4) with the initial condition (5)
As can be seen in Fig. 3 for insulating materials (glass-Dber R(x)
mat and mineral wool) apparent thermal conductivity W (x; t) = t + C; (20)
w
strongly depends on temperature while for such materials
as common brick and cellular concrete this dependence is where the constant C is equal to
weak. C = W0 (x): (21)
Obtaining an analytical solution for the non-linear dif-
ferential equation (9), governing heat transfer through wet It is easy to check that the moisture content Deld is Dnally
zone, is not possible. In order to get this, we shall replace obtained as
the apparent thermal conductivity (10) by an exponential K 2 Rmax t
function deDned as follows W (x; t) = + W0 (x);
w {[(K − 1)x=l + 1]}2
k(T ) ≈ k(T0 )K (T0 −T )=(T0 −Tl ) ; (12)
W ¡ Wcr (22)
which maintains the proper character of the temperature de-
pendence. It can be easily seen that the dimensionless ma- and loses its validity beyond the critical value. The con-
terial coeMcient K is given by densate content increases linearly with time and follows the
k(Tl ) same proDle as the condensation rate. The maximum of the
K= ; 0 ¡ K ¡ 1: (13) moisture curve (22) can be found as
k(T0 )
Introducing function (12) into Eq. (9) and integrating Rmax
Wmax (t) = W (t; l) = t + W0 (l); W ¡ Wcr : (23)
the result, the following Drst-order non-linear diCerential w
equation with separated variables is obtained: The condensate content reaches its critical value when
K (T0 −T )=(T0 −Tl ) dT = C1 d x; (14)
Wmax (tcr ) = Wcr ; (24)
where C1 is a constant. Solving the above equation in con-
junction with boundary conditions (3) yields where tcr is the time at which that value is reached (s).
T0 − Tl (T0 −T )=(T0 −Tl ) The critical time indicates how long the Drst spatially
− K = C1 x + C 2 ; (15) steady period of condensation lasts.
ln K
 J. Wyrwal, A. Marynowicz / Building and Environment 37 (2002) 313–318
Table 3
Properties of the materials in the wall used as an example for calculation [13]
Material Heat conductivity  Thermal resistance R
(W=(m K)) (m2 (K=W))
Cement–lime plaster 0.900 0.01
Glass wool 0.050 1.50
Light concrete 0.790 0.19
Fig. 4. Cross section of the wall used as an example for calculation.
4. Practical example
In order to demonstrate the eCects of the various param-
eters as well as the initial and boundary conditions on con-
densation and condensate accumulation, a practical example
is presented here. The properties of materials (Table 3) and
the external conditions were chosen to simulate a porous
wall. A multilayered building wall is considered as an ex-
ample (Fig. 4). The values of parameters employed in the
calculations are as follows:
• latent heat of condensation, L = 2:5 × 106 J=kg,
• gas constant of vapour, Rv = 461:9 J=(kg K), and
• water density, w = 1000 kg=m3 .
Before analysing condensation it must be established
whether, for the conditions considered, condensation takes
place. If at any point in the porous slab the vapour pres-
sure is higher than the saturation value corresponding to
the temperature at that point, condensation occurs and the
analysis which includes phenomenon of condensation must
be followed. The conditions considered above indicate the
presence of condensation in the layers of glass wool and
light concrete (Fig. 4).
In order to calculate the location of wet zone within the
analysed wall and temperatures of its surfaces the computer
program HUMIDITY is used [14]. This program is designed
for numerical steady-state analysis of the thermal and mois-
ture conditions in multilayered walls with diCerent thermal
and moisture characteristics. With the program HUMIDITY,
for the layer of glass wool, one obtains
317
Vapour permeability Dp Vapour resistance Z
(kg=(m s Pa)) (m2 s Pa=kg)
13 × 10−12 7:7 × 108
167 × 10−12 4:5 × 108
8 × 10−12 187:5 × 108
Fig. 5. Moisture accumulation in the wet zone of glass wool due to vapour
condensation.
◦
• interior temperature of the wet zone, T0 =282:96 K (9:8 C),
◦
• exterior temperature of the wet zone, Tl =273:66 K (0:5 C),
and
• width of the wet zone, l = 0:035 m.
Eqs. (13) and (19) give the following results:
• dimensionless coeMcient, K = 0:8277, and
• maximum condensation rate, Rmax =1:53×104 kg=(m3 s).
Because of the large vapour permeability of glass wool
and temperature diCerence in the wet zone, the condensation
rate is relatively large as well.
The condensate accumulation in wet region of glass wool
can be obtained from the moisture content Deld (22), and
for such parameters as [7]
• initial moisture content (at ’=60%); W0 =0:0006 m3 =m3 ,
and
• capillary saturation, Wcap = 0:01 m3 =m3 ,
is illustrated in Fig. 5. It shows that the condensate content
is larger near the cool surface of the wet zone than near the
warm one and the point of its maximum, equal to capillary
saturation, lies closer to the colder boundary.
Due to large condensation rate occurring during the anal-
ysed spatially steady regime, this regime is maintained over
a short period of time. Consequently, the time at which cap-
illary saturation of glass wool is reached is short as well
(Fig. 5). It can be easily veriDed that for light concrete this
time is very long.
318 J. Wyrwal, A. Marynowicz / Building and Environment 37 (2002) 313–318
5. Conclusions
In civil engineering there is an increasing demand for
calculation methods to estimate the moisture behaviour
of building components. Current tasks, such as preserving
historical buildings or restoring existing constructions, are
closely related to questions concerning present and future
moisture conditions in a building structure. Due to expen-
sive and time-consuming experimental investigations of
the moisture behaviour of porous building materials, cal-
culation studies are becoming increasingly important. The
validation of a calculation model requires reliable exper-
imental investigations with well-documented initial and
boundary conditions, as well as accurate material properties
and measurements results.
In this paper, one-dimensional simultaneous heat and
vapour transfer with phase change in a porous slab has been
investigated. A steady analytical solution has been given
to the heat transfer equation, where the apparent thermal
conductivity is non-constant. Closed-form solutions for the
condensation rate and condensate content are obtained. Fur-
thermore, as the resulting equations are solved analytically,
the obtained results are universal. The usefulness of any
moisture transport model is very much dependent on its
applicability, which is determined by the availability of the
corresponding transfer coeMcients. The model presented
requires material properties which are comparatively simple
and easy to determine. Therefore, a lot of building materials
and constructions can be examined.
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