Moisture effects of unsaturated porous soils on indoor air enthalpy

A mathematical model applied to building hygrothermal behavior analysis is described in this paper. We have used a lumped approach to model the room air temperature and humidity and a multilayer model in finite volumes for the building envelope. The capacitance model allows studying the dynamic performance of both humidity and temperature of a building zone when it is submitted to the different climatic factors. In the results section, we show the moisture effects on the heat and mass transfer through the floor and ground. The methodology presented for the soil and floor model was based on the Philip and De Vries theory. The governing equations were discretized in finite volumes and a 3-D model was used for ground and floor.