A laboratory equipment for the study of moisture processes in thermal insulation materials when placed in a temperature field

The aim of this paper was to describe design and use of a laboratory set-up that makes a very well controlled moisture load to detect material properties of thermal insulation materials. The outer shell of the set-up is a plastic box with thermal insulation on its outer side. This box is placed on a balance for recording of weight loss of the entire system. The sample to be tested is placed on top of this box. The inside of the box is heated electrically and the air circulation is driven by a fan. There is a water reservoir in the box, which is also placed on a balance in order to record the amount of moisture added to the air in the box. To obtain the highest moisture contents it was found necessary to use a wick in the reservoir that increases transport of moisture to the air in the box. The whole set-up was placed in a climate chamber in order to get well controlled temperature and moisture content for the outside of the box. In this way, well controlled gradients of temperature and moisture content in air were achieved around the specimen. The set-up was found to function well and was in this study useful for measurement of the samples moisture resistance factor.