Une revue des codes numeriques permettant de predire le comportement des batiments multizones montre nettement la difficulte qu'il y a a Jes evaluer par manque de donnees experimentales fiab/es. Apres une breve description des methodes de caracterisation de la permeabilite Jes plus repandues, la presente publication decrit une methode dite passive, basee sur la definition de scenarii lies a la morphologie du batiment. Cette methode est testee et evaluee sur deux batiments reels.

Knowledge of the amount of air leaking into a building through the various building components is important for a wide variety of reasons. Initially the interest in these values was so that estimates could be made on the amount of energy to be added or removed to heat or cool air that was infiltrating into the structure. Selection of new and replacement building materials was done partially on the amount of energy costs that would be saved by the selection of that component.