• Ferreira, Rui Miguel
• Vesikari, Erkki

Abstract

The EU Research Project SUSREF proposes as its outcomesustainable concepts and technologies for therefurbishment of building facades and external walls. Oneof the tasks in the SUSREF project was to predict theperformance and service life of the proposedrefurbishment concepts. A simulation software developedat VTT in the 1990s was updated and used to evaluatepossible degradation in refurbished concrete facades. Thesoftware is able to emulate the temperature and moisturecontent in a cross-section of a sandwich wall and toapply temperature and moisture sensitive degradationmodels at critical points of the wall throughout itsservice life. Five different refurbishment concepts ofbuilding facades were analyzed for predicting possiblemoisture and degradation problems. The analyses wereconducted in various European climates and with variousmaterials as thermal insulation and outer core. Theresults show that the risk of mould growth and continuedcorrosion of reinforcement should be considered whenusing dense insulation materials, such as expandedpolystyrene and polyurethane. The concepts where theoriginal outer core and thermal insulation are replacedby new ones seem to be relatively risk free. In addition,in cold weather countries the risk of frost attack shouldalways be considered with concretes and mortars. The useof dense coatings on original outer core or rendering mayincrease the mould risk

Topics

• impedance spectroscopy
• simulation