Une mauvaise étanchéité à l’air dans un bâtiment peut entraîner des surconsommations énergétiques et poser un certain nombre de problèmes tels que l’apparition de moisissures dans les murs ou encore une mauvaise qualité de l’air intérieur. Les constructions à ossature bois sont particulièrement sujettes aux infiltrations d’air, d’où la nécessité de mieux comprendre ces phénomènes et leurs conséquences afin que ces bâtiments puissent respecter les normes d’étanchéité de plus en plus strictes. Cette étude contribue par plusieurs aspects et à différentes échelles à l’évaluation de l’impact des infiltrations d’air sur les performances d’un bâtiment.Les infiltrations d’air à travers l’enveloppe peuvent perturber le bon fonctionnement de la ventilation mécanique et augmenter les pertes thermiques. Cette problématique est d’abord traitée numériquement à l’échelle du bâtiment, avec l’étude d’une grande variété de maisons et de conditions météorologiques. Des modèles simplifiés applicables à tout niveau d’étanchéité ont été établis pour la prise en compte des infiltrations naturelles dans les calculs de débit total de ventilation. Une plus petite échelle est ensuite considérée pour l’étude de l’étanchéité à l’air, avec la caractérisation expérimentale de parois ossature bois, de matériaux et de détails de construction, notamment grâce à la construction d’un banc d’essai adapté. Un certain nombre de tests de pressurisation ont permis de quantifier les fuites d’air induites par des défauts d’étanchéité spécifiques et peuvent être utilisés pour les simulations numériques à l’échelle du bâtiment.L’impact des infiltrations d’air sur les performances hygrothermiques d’une paroi est intimement lié à la dispersion de l’air à l’intérieur de celle-ci, mais il y a actuellement un manque d’études et de techniques expérimentales pour la déterminer. Une nouvelle méthode a donc été développée, à savoir l’utilisation de microparticules de fluorescéine comme traceur à l’intérieur des isolants. L’établissement de cartographies de la concentration en fluorescéine a permis d’étudier l’impact de certains paramètres tels que la vitesse d’air, le matériau isolant ou encore la géométrie sur les infiltrations d’air, et a mis en évidence des phénomènes tels que l’apparition de lames d’air entre les composants de la paroi. Par ailleurs un modèle du transport des particules de fluorescéine a été développé et couplé à un modèle CFD pour des analyses plus fines du chemin de l’air.Enfin, une étude de cas a été effectuée sur des parois simplifiées afin de comparer les différentes méthodes expérimentales, de vérifier leur applicabilité à l’étude du chemin de l’air, et d’obtenir des données pour la validation de modèles numériques. La dispersion de l’air en entrée/sortie de l’isolant a été étudiée par thermographie infrarouge et PIV. Le chemin de l’air à l’intérieur de l’isolant a lui été étudié par 3 techniques : des mesures de température avec des thermocouples ; d’humidité relative avec des capteurs capacitifs SHT 75 ; et l’utilisation de microparticules de fluorescéine. Les avantages et inconvénients de chaque méthode ont été identifiés pour aider à sélectionner la plus adaptée pour de futures études. / Poor airtightness in buildings can lead to an over-consumption of energy and to many issues such as moisture damage and poor indoor climate. The timber frame constructions are particularly subject to air leakage and further knowledge in this field is needed to meet the regulation requirements tightened by the development of low-energy and passive houses. This study focuses on the impact of air infiltration on the buildings’ performance, both at the building and the wall assembly scales.The air infiltration through the envelope can disrupt the proper functioning of mechanical ventilation and increase the global energy load. This issue was first investigated numerically at the building scale on a wide range of housing and weather conditions. Simplified models working across the whole airtightness spectrum were established for the inclusion of natural infiltration in buildings’ total ventilation rate calculations. The airtightness was then considered at a smaller scale with the experimental characterization of timber frame wall assemblies, components and construction details, in particular with an original test set-up built for this purpose. A number of pressurization tests enabled to quantify the additional leakage air flow induced by specific airtightness defects and may be of use for building scale numerical simulations.The impact of air infiltration on the hygro-thermal performance of a wall is closely linked to the air dispersion inside it, but there is a lack of experimental studies and methods for the air path investigation. A new technique has therefore been developed, consisting in an innovative use of fluorescein micro-particles as tracer inside the insulation material. It was first applied to specific configurations: straight/angled air channels in contact with porous media. A simple analysis of the fluorescein concentration mappings enabled to investigate the impact of parameters such as the flow velocity, the insulation material and the geometry on the air infiltration in the glass wool, and gave evidences of phenomena such as the appearance of thin air gaps between the components of the wall. A fluorescein transport model was developed and coupled to a CFD model for finer analysis.Finally a case study on simple wall assemblies was carried out to compare experimental techniques, to verify their applicability to the air path study and to provide data for possible numerical model validation. The air dispersion at the inlet/outlet of the insulation was studied with both infrared thermography and the PIV. The air path inside the insulation layer was investigated using three experimental approaches: a temperature monitoring with thermocouples; a relative humidity monitoring with capacitive sensors SHT 75; and the use of fluorescein tracer micro-particles. The respective benefits and limitations of the various methods were identified to help in the selection of the most appropriate one for further studies.

Moisture loads arising from the deposition of wind-driven rain (WDR) on building façades can induce detrimental effects to wall assembly components and can adversely influence their long-term performance. Wind-driven rain as a climatic phenomenon will inevitably be affected by the evident changing climate in the near future. Wall assemblies subjected to wind-driven rain loads will also perform differently due to a varying moisture environment over the course of time. The performance of the building envelope, including the wall assembly, largely determines the serviceability of a building over its life cycle. Thus, it is essential for practitioners to understand and to be able to assess such performance. In this study, a complete procedure has been developed to permit assessing the moisture resilience of wall assemblies to wind-driven rain loads arising from climate change. The development of this procedure included four phases. In the first phase the historical and projected climate data was analysed to identify the possible wind-driven rain conditions to which a wall assembly may be exposed. The magnitudes of wind-driven rain and driving-rain-wind-pressure for different return periods were also investigated. Based on the results from phase one, a watertightness test protocol was established taking into consideration the possible ranges of wind-driven rain and driving-rain-wind-pressure as they may occur spatially, as well as temporally, across Canada. The range of watertightness test parameters was accommodated in the newly built Dynamic Wind and Wall Testing Facility (DWTF) at the National Research Council Canada. Thereafter in phase two of the research, wall assemblies having different configurations were tested in the DWTF following the test protocol to obtain the moisture load for wall assemblies under different wind-driven rain conditions. Such moisture loads were formulized and used in the third phase, where hygrothermal simulations were conducted to derive the hygrothermal parameters of the wall assemblies subjected to historical and projected climate data. In the final research development phase, different criteria and methods were explored to describe the performance of wall assemblies based on the hygrothermal parameters. During the development of the moisture resilience assessment procedure, a novel wind-driven-rain-pressure-index was devised to describe the extent of the effects arising from the concurrent action of wind-driven rain and driving-rain-wind-pressure loads on a vertical wall assembly; a new two-step approach was established to formulize the watertightness test results and thereby permit calculating the moisture load using values of hourly wind-driven-rain and hourly driving-rain-wind-pressure of a given location; a novel severity index was proposed to quantitatively describe the damage events arising from such moisture load on the wall assemblies. The moisture performance of tested wall assemblies subjected to historical and projected future climate were compared and discussed. The risks of occurrence of damage events in wall assemblies during different time periods were also demonstrated.