Investigating simultaneous transport of heat and moisture in hygroscopic materials by a semi-conjugate CFD-coupled approach

•A semi-conjugate approach (CFD–HAM) which couples CFD model with simultaneous transfer model of heat and moisture in hygroscopic material was proposed.•Two solvers are used in the proposed approach.•The validity is verified by an experimental study designed in a test chamber with hygroscopic materials furnished.

Hygroscopic materials have been widely used to alleviate humidity variation in buildings. Nevertheless, research efforts are so far scarce on the conditioning mechanisms of these materials on the envelope structure, indoor temperature, humidity, and air flow distribution. In this paper, a semi-conjugate approach (CFD–HAM) which couples CFD model with simultaneous transfer model of heat and moisture in hygroscopic material was proposed. The proposed model could be used for the assessment of moisture buffering effect of hygroscopic materials and humidity-induced envelope problems such as energy lost, condensation, and moulding. In addition, the validity of the proposed CFD–HAM model was verified by the consistency between the simulated and experimental results of an air-conditioned test chamber experiment.