The in-plane (plane stress) fracture toughness of two polyester (PET, PETG) sheets were assessed using the essential work of fracture (EWF) method after thermal and hygrothermal aging performed just below glass temperature. This ensured that physical aging takes place. On the aged sheets the yield stress (σy), enthalpy relaxation (ΔH) and EWF parameters were determined. It was observed that the...

A long-term onsite assessment of the hygrothermal performance of a wood frame wall system is presented in this work. The system was applied in a wood demonstration house within the Lake Tai climate zone of Suzhou, China. The hygrothermal performance of the cavity insulation wall was determined from the temperature, relative humidity, and from the temperature of the wood material surface through...

Hygrothermal analysis of laminated composite plates has been done by using an efficient higher order shear deformation theory. The stress field derived from hygrothermal fields must be consistent with total strain field in this type of analysis. In the present formulation, the plate model has been implemented with a computationally efficient C0 finite element developed by using consistent strai...

This paper describes a current multi-disciplinary UK funded research project aimed at developing a hygrothermal model of house dust mite response to environmental conditions. The project involves the development of a transient hygrothermal bed model, which has been tested and validated by comparing its predictions with the environmental conditions measured in a bed in a test laboratory and in b...

Hemp concrete is more and more recommended by eco-builders because hemp is a renewable plant, recyclable and does not degrade within time. To integrate this material into buildings, it is important to study its hygrothermal behaviour. In this paper, two models have been investigated: a heat transfer model (Th) and a hygrothermal model accounting for heat and moisture transport through building ...

Article history: Received 13 June 2012 Received in revised form 1 June 2013 Accepted 15 June 2013 Available online 17 July 2013 The effect of the different hygrothermal conditions on the shear strength degradation of ACA joints and the difference among them are studied in this paper using experiments and numerical simulations. First of all, several hygrothermal aging tests with different accele...

This paper addresses a number of problems relating to climatic change and human health. Following an introduction outlining the overarching issues, a short summary is given on climatic change and its anthropogenic causes. The rest of the paper then focuses on the direct and indirect impacts of global climatic change on health. Direct effects comprise changes in the hygrothermal stress response ...

This paper investigates the hygrothermal effects on the failure mechanisms in bending of carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites. Accelerated diffusion testing was carried out by immersion at 50°C constant temperature and 70 bar hydrostatic pressure to study the effects of fresh or sea water diffusion into pre-preg CFRP laminates. Consequently the composite laminates were tested in be...

This paper proposes an intelligent model for realtime control of the hygrothermal behaviour in low energy buildings. Through the management of information related to internal and external conditions combined with the design and context data, the built network lead to assess the correct strategy for an adequate hygrothermal behaviour (choosing between active and passive systems for control of in...

In this article, the effect of hygrothermal aging on mechanical properties of fiber metal laminates (FMLs) and E-glass/epoxy (GE) composites is investigated. First, FML and GE specimens were built using wet lay-up technique under vacuum pressure. Hygrothermal aging simulation was then carried out on both specimen types in distilled water at a constant temperature of 90 °C for 5 weeks. The resul...