Durability of Internally Insulated Historical Solid Masonry Under Future Climates: A Stochastic Approach

Abstract

Today, it is globally known that climate change needs to be addressed to mitigate its harmful effects on our environment. It is also common knowledge that the contribution of historical buildings to the energy consumption of the existing Canadian building stock is severe. Buildings of historical identity are often poorly thermally insulated. Thus, to increase energy efficiency and occupant comfort in cold climates, the application of thermal insulation on the interior side of solid masonry walls offers a possibility to improve the historic buildings’ energy performance, without compromising their identity and cultural heritage values. As a result, the historical masonry will be subjected to lower temperature during the heating season, which can increase the potential for condensation and frost within the wall. A balance must therefore be reached between durability measures and thermal performance objectives. This paper intends to achieve this balance through determining the impact of the interior insulation thickness on the durability of a typical historical masonry wall under the effect of climate change. A stochastic approach is used in hygrothermal simulations to account for the uncertainty in material properties. Results in Ottawa indicate a higher risk to frost damage after interior insulation is added to a brick wall having a moisture critical degree of saturation (Scrit) of 0.25 and 0.35. Moreover, both deterministic and the stochastic results were in good agreement. Also, both methods showed an increase risk to frost damage under a changing climate.

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