Computer aided numerical simulation tools are now widely used to analyze the effects of heat-air-moisture (HAM) transport on the exterior building envelopes. However, these practical and user-friendly design tools obviously require reliable inputs to generate useful and meaningful information for the building envelope designers. One of these inputs is the detailed heat, air, and moisture transport properties of building envelope construction materials. Inherently, in case of building materials commonly used in North America, for the same generic building materials the properties may vary within a broad range. It is important that designers should acknowledge this phenomenon and incorporate this within the design parameters. This paper reports the density, thermal conductivity, equilibrium moisture content, water vapor permeability, water absorption coefficient, liquid diffusivity, and air permeability of twenty-three commonly used in North American building materials that include Exterior Claddings, Exterior Sheathing Boards, Membranes and Insulations. The experimental and analytical procedures, either international standards or well-established methodologies, used to determine these properties are also discussed in this paper.

Presented at Thermal Performance of Exterior Envelopes of Whole Buildings X – December 2007

Units: SI