To reduce the CO₂ footprint of buildings, renewable raw materials such as wood and natural fiber products are increasingly being used as building materials. Due to their biological origin, however, these materials may be susceptible to decay fungi under certain moisture and temperature conditions, particularly when exposure lasts long enough. For the design of durable assemblies, it is therefore essential to identify boundary conditions under which decay risk can be reliably avoided.
Contine reading →

Under specific hygrothermal (temperature and humidity) conditions, various surfaces in buildings can experience mold growth. In addition to obvious aesthetic and sanitary issues, mold growth is also a significant health risk. Mold spores are known to cause various illnesses in humans. To prevent mold growth it is important to develop methods that account for transient hygrothermal boundary conditions and inform designers if the environment would support mold growth. The most important factors are temperature, humidity, and substrate material.

Contine reading →

Decay of buildings is often related to corrosion of metallic reinforcements. If wet conditions occur on the surface of steel reinforcements, corrosion can start, unless the inserts are protected by the alkalinity of the environment. Corrosion may weaken reinforcements and produce expanding oxides that lead to the detachment of covering materials, thus being harmful for the durability of the construction and challenging for its restoration. When dealing with heritage buildings the problem becomes even more complex due to the need of non-invasive and reversible techniques. Here the only possibility is often to limit the corrosion rate by controlling moisture and temperature conditions in the assembly.

Contine reading →

The WUFI® FinMould add-on was developed in collaboration between the Finnish research institute VTT, the Tampere University and Fraunhofer IBP. Hannu Viitanen, Tuomo Ojanen and Juha Vinha have been dealing many years with the growth conditions of mould on wood and other building materials. The mathematic-empirical model predicts mould growth as a function of substrate material, temperature and relative humidity. For evaluation the so-called Mould Index (MI) was developed, which indicates the intensity of growth using an easy-to-understand six-point scale. Contine reading →

Specifically for the needs and requirements of Sweden, the University of Lund developed the post processor Moisture resistance Design (MRD) model. It allows to evaluate the risk of mould growth in accordance with the Swedish approach. The model can be used by all WUFI^® software from the WUFI^® software family.

Please note that the post processor was developed externally. We therefore cannot offer support for the MRD. Also, the post processor is ony available in English.

Contine reading →

This postprocessor demonstrates how simple it is to integrate a postprocessor into WUFI^®. It only displays the data it receives from WUFI^®; it does not perform any evaluation. Instructions and documentation are included. Contine reading →

The software tool HygroApprox allows simple approximation of certain hygrothermal material parameters from standard parameters. The current version offers approximation of the liquid transport coefficients Dw and of the moisture storage function. Contine reading →

This film viewer allows you to view animated WUFI^® results on computers which have no WUFI^® installed. You can use it for stand-alone presentations, embed it in a PowerPoint presentation or burn it on a self-starting presentation CD. Instructions are included. Contine reading →