The “HumFlow” Project – Developing a minimal invasive measurement system for estimating energy and humidity transfer processes through building walls

Abstract

Establishing suitable indoor climate conditions for exhibits in historical buildings is one of the main goals for curators in museums and exhibitions. Different guidelines in the field of preventive conservation provide therefore useful criteria and methods to prevent or to delay the deterioration of the objects of cultural heritage. Maintaining such a suitable indoor climate often needs the usage of expensive HVAC-equipment, whose installation occasionally damages the historical structure of such buildings and poses a problem for protection standards for historical monuments. The ongoing “HumFlow” project contributes to the solution of two problems: Firstly, avoiding damages to building structures provoked by installation of measurement devices and, secondly, gaining enough measurement data and information of humidity and energy transfer processes of walls and other surfaces by developing a minimal invasive measurement system. This paper focuses on the overall project goals, describes the test bed including experiment design, discusses the first results and provides a simple hygrothermal model of a flat wall. Therefore, it can be seen as an introduction for subsequent contributions of this project.