ABSTRACT
To investigate the relative performance of the drying capacity of building envelope systems it is important to (i) establish uniform initial moisture conditions in the wall panels, (ii) have a moisture source that can be measured and monitored as the moisture evaporates, and (iii) have a moisture source of sufficient size to provide enough vapor to achieve steady state in the moisture content in the wall system and to be evacuated to the exterior of the stud cavity. The wetting methods, found in the literature, do not achieve all of the above conditions. A wetting method is presented in this paper that makes use of a water tray placed on a load cell above the bottom plate in the stud cavity to generate moisture and achieve all of these objectives. Three lab tests were carried out to test the reliability of the water tray system.
