Grant: Engage Grants Program

The proposed research project aims to investigate the moisture buffering potential of Magnesia boards atdifferent building operation scenarios. The research will be conducted using the state-of-the-art CFI-fundedWhole-Building Performance Research Laboratory (WBPRL), which is comprised of two test buildings. Oneof the buildings will be set as a 'reference building' and the second one as a 'test building'. The interior of the'reference building' will be finished with gypsum panels, material that is almost exclusively used by theindustry, and the 'test building' will be finished with the Magnesia board. The two buildings will be exposed toidentical outdoor climatic conditions and indoor hygrothermal loads. The indoor humidity and temperaturemeasurement results of the two buildings will be used to evaluate the moisture buffering potential of theMagnesia board relative to the gypsum board finish. The indoor hygrothermal loads will be defined based onthe number of occupants in a typical residential building and the activities associated with their heat andmoisture generation rates. In this project, average and high occupant density cases will be considered and thecorresponding daily heat and moisture generation profiles will be developed, and supplied to both buildingsusing the already in-house developed occupant simulators. For each occupant density, the effect of ventilationrates and ventilation control strategies on the moisture buffering effect of the material will be studied. The twoventilation control methods considered in this study are continuous ventilation and relative-humidity controlledventilation strategies. Thus, in this project a total of sixteen experiments with combinations of two moisturebuffering materials, two occupant densities, two ventilation rates and two ventilation control strategies will becarried out. Based on the analysis of these experimental results, the moisture buffering potential of theMagnesia board will be quantified and its performance in relation to ventilation schemes will be developed.Moreover, its impacts on the energy savings of buildings by reducing ventilation heat loss as a result of itsmoisture buffering properties will be studied.