ABSTRACT
Airflow in and around buildings has a key influence on comfort, health and safety, and on the efficiency and effectiveness of space heating, cooling and ventilation, and therefore energy consumption. Also, because air leakage through structures carries much more water vapour than diffusion through the materials, the risks of interstitial condensation are dominated by the air tightness of the internal layers. Standard interstitial condensation risk assessment procedures, such as those in BS EN ISO 13788, take no account of transport by air movement. One system in which airflows dominate is cold pitched roofs over housing, the most common type of domestic roof in the UK. This work aims to assess the potential for airflow between houses and pitched roofs. This paper presents preliminary results from a CFD model of airflows between a house and its roofs, which has been developed to carry out sensitivity analysis of the relevant factors.
