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Hygrothermal analysis allows a designer to predict moisture and temperature conditions that might occur within a building envelope assembly over time. Such analysis can improve the understanding of how the building envelope responds to indoor and outdoor environments and can help identify potential moisture problems. ASHRAE Standard 160, Criteria for Moisture-Control Design Analysis in Buildings, provides a standardized set of criteria on how to conduct hygrothermal analyses and evaluate and report the results. In addition to setting input moisture loads and selection of design weather years, it also provides evaluation criteria. The evaluation criteria are used to interpret the results of the hygrothermal analysis to see whether the building may have problems with mold growth or corrosion. Although the standard claims to be a performance-based design criteria, the evaluation criteria for mold growth and corrosion are fixed criteria and are not a reliability, risk-based approach. Because of this, the original mold criteria in the standard were overly conservative and many buildings that were already built and showed no visible mold growth actually failed the Standard 160 mold criteria (Glass and others 2015). Recently, Standard 160 incorporated improved mold evaluation criteria based on the work of Viitanen and colleagues (Ojanen and others 2010). This project plans to extend these new evaluation criteria to include a reliability-probabilistic approach so that the risk of mold can be evaluated for each construction.
Glass, Samuel V.
Zelinka, Samuel L.
| - FPL's Mission and Strategic Plan - |
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FPL's mission is to identify and conduct innovative wood and fiber utilization research that contributes to conservation and productivity of the forest resource, thereby sustaining forests, the economy, and quality of life. ... ..more » |
| - FPL Research Emphasis Areas - |
Advanced Composites
As an integral part of the FPL mission, we improve the long-term sustainability of our Nation's forests by creating valuable composite products from biobased materials ... ..more » 
Advanced Structures
The FPL has been in the forefront of wood-frame housing research since 1910 and has long been recognized as a world leader in such housing-related areas as engineered wood ... ..more » 
Forest Biorefinery
We all know the compelling reasons that the United States needs to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels. Historically, the greatest increases in energy demand have been for transportation fuels ... ..more » 
Nanotechnology
A leader in wood products research for over a century, the FPL is positioning itself to become the lead Federal research facility for the application of nanotechnology in forest products ... more » 
Woody Biomass Utilization
Forests in the United States contain a substantial amount of small-diameter, overstocked, and underutilized material.FPL research projects are exploring the potential of the small-diameter ... ..more » |