Moisture transport analysis for integrated structures of flat plate solar collector and building envelope

Accumulation of moisture in the building envelopes may corrode the building structures or deteriorate the indoor environment. In this paper, a hybrid method for moisture transport analysis for solar structures was developed. This hybrid method first adopts state space method to calculate the joint surface temperature between the solar collector and building structure, and then simulate the moisture transport of the building structure by Delphin. The hybrid method was validated by experiments. The moisture transport of an integrated structure of solar collector with a wall, i.e. solar wall, in Shanghai under dry and wet conditions were studied and compared with an ordinary wall by the hybrid method. The results indicated that the solar wall had lower moisture content than ordinary walls in dry conditions. However, if there was wet layer of 10 mm in the wall, the solar wall took much more days to turn dry than the ordinary wall. Therefore, the sealing and waterproof measures should be carefully taken when integrating solar collectors with buildings to prevent water from entering into the solar wall.

Automated summary

Accumulation of moisture in building envelopes can lead to corrosion of structures and deterioration of indoor environment. A hybrid method for analyzing moisture transport in solar structures was developed and validated through experiments. Results showed that solar walls had lower moisture content in dry conditions compared to ordinary walls, but took longer to dry out in wet conditions. Proper sealing and waterproofing measures are necessary when integrating solar collectors with buildings to prevent water penetration.