Abstract
The present study introduces a method for the assessment of climatic conditions and material parameters as an example applied to a wooden façade in view of service life prediction. The moisture content is used as evaluation criteria since enduring high moisture content is known to be one main cause for fungal and insect attack. Data is used from the ongoing project Climate 2000 ? Building constructions in a more severe climate, conducted by the Norwegian Building Research Institute (NBI), where among other things an experimental investigation of wooden cladding design has been set up at a test building. Four parameters are introduced to evaluate the significance of different material parameters: local location, surface treatment, material quality, and micro location. In each case boards differing in only one of the parameters are compared by calculating a nondimensional factor. Thus, the importance of the different factors can be evaluated simply by comparing them among each other. The results indicate that local location, i.e. orientation towards west or east, has the greatest influence. Next, the investigations on the parameter surface treatment, i.e. oil-based paint, water-based paint, and untreated surface, already reveal differences in moisture content for the different surface treatments. Finally, the parameters material quality and micro location seem to be of rather marginal significance at that time. The results confirm the assumptions about the influence of the different parameters on the moisture content. However, since data is so far only available for a period of one year, the further observation of the detected developments will be an interesting task. As well, advances in understanding the processes that affect the performance of building materials are important both to meet the requirements of sustainable constructions and the prediction of their service lives.
