Freezing-Thawing Processes in Glass Fiber Board

Abstract

For the prevention of vapor condensation and accompanying damage in cold regions, the behavior of water and ice in porous materials should be understood. In this study, experiments on the freezing-thawing processes in a glass fiber board, which is a typical insu lation, were conducted. The freezing-thawing processes were analyzed with the use of si multaneous heat and moisture transfer equations that accounted for the existence of ice. The result of the analysis agrees well with that of the experiment. In materials with large pores such as glass fiber board, the moisture transfers mainly in the gaseous phase. As a re sult, the maximum ice content is found at the colder boundary of the wall, which differs from the result in our previous investigation [1] for Leda Clay with pores that are much smaller.