Insulating historic masonry buildings will improve thermal performance. However, heritage requirements often limit the addition of insulation to the interior surface. This can lead to colder and wetter walls. Freezing temperatures coupled with high moisture levels in the brick leave the walls susceptible to frost damage. Current retrofit designs attempt to control condensation of interior moisture. However, these designs do not consider exterior moisture sources, nor do they allow for interstitial moisture to be easily removed.
This thesis presents an innovative, ventilated masonry retrofit that utilizes drainage and drying to address moisture accumulation issues. Computer simulations are used to assess and compare the hygrothermal performance of typical and ventilated masonry retrofits. The results show masonry moisture contents are reduced when ventilation drying is provided. Further, these simulations show it may be possible to increase thermal insulation levels in historic masonry buildings without damaging the very façade to be preserved.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:OTU.1807/26532 |
| Date | 30 March 2011 |
| Creators | Pearson, Nastassja |
| Contributors | Pressnail, Kim D. |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | en_ca |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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