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Teaching Heat and Moisture Transport Modeling for Building Physics

Engineering with COMSOL

Article  in  International Journal of Engineering Education · January 2009

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Teaching Heat and Moisture Transport Modeling for Building
Physics Engineering with COMSOL

A.W.M. van Schijndel and H.L. Schellen

Eindhoven University of Technology, Department of Architecture, Building and
Planning, Netherlands
E-mail: [email protected]

Keywords: Modeling, Building Physics, Multiphysics, Heat, Moisture, Education

ABSTRACT
This paper presents the use of the multiphysics package COMSOL for teaching heat
and moisture transport modeling in the research area of building physics. It includes a
description on how COMSOL works and six exercises with 2D, 3D, steady state and
transient models. It is concluded that COMSOL is a very useful tool for this kind of
engineering education. Especially, the abstraction level of working with partial
differential equations (PDEs) has the advantage that the theory (also based on PDEs)
can be relative easily implemented in the models.

INTRODUCTION
Building spaces are separated from each other and from the outdoor climate by
partitions: inside walls and the building envelope, facades, roofs, floors. The building
envelope is subjected to a strongly fluctuating outdoor climate: sunshine, rain, wind
and air temperatures. The performance demands required for these structures depend
on the requirements for comfort in the rooms of a building, the energy needed to
realize the desired indoor climate, the air quality and air humidity of this climate, the
durability, maintenance, use of materials and the recyclability of these structures. In
the past the design of these structures was lead by experience. Due to the more rigid
requirements on performance and the enormous increase of new building techniques,
new materials and new building shapes this reliance on experience is often not
applicable any more. The result may be building damage, a bad indoor climate and an
unnecessary high energy consumption. Therefore the knowledge of heat and moisture
transport through building structures and joints is increasingly important for building
design. A clear illustration of this fact is the building code with its abundant
regulations related to building physics. The knowledge, insight and prediction models
of building physics are indispensable for the realization of high quality buildings that
satisfy the required performances [1-3]. Topics related with building physics
published in previous International Journals of Engineering Education are provided in
references [4-7].

COMSOL MULTIPHYSICS SOFTWARE

Many scientific problems in building physics can be described by PDEs [8]. There are
a lot of software programs available in which one specific PDE is solved. They are
developed in order to get the simulation results in a short time and most often a lot of
effort has been put into the simplicity of input of data, e.g. geometrical data. A
disadvantage is that they often are not very flexible when the user wants to change or
combine models. Another drawback is that they most often act as black boxes.
Another category of commercially available software like Comsol [9] is developed
specifically for solving PDEs where the user in principle can simulate any system of
coupled PDEs. Practical physics/engineering problems, related with building physics
[10, 11], in the area of heat transfer [12-21], moisture transport [22-29], fluid
dynamics [30-39] and structural mechanics [40-43] can be solved with the software.
One of the main advantages of Comsol is that the user can focus on the model (PDE
coefficients on the domain and the domain boundary) and does not have to spend
much time on solving and visualization. The scientist can concentrate on the physics
behind the models and the engineer can calculate details for designing purposes using
validated models.

How Comsol works

Comsol solves systems of coupled PDEs (up to 32 independent variables). The
specified PDEs may be non-linear and time dependent and act on a 1D, 2D or 3D
geometry. The PDEs and boundary values can be represented by two forms. The
coefficient form is as follows *:

*
The symbols provided by the Comsol modeling guides are also used here.
 ∂u
da − ∇ ⋅ (c∇u + αu − γ ) + β ∇u + au = f in Ω ( 1a )
∂t

n ⋅ ( c∇ u + α u − γ ) + q u = g − λ on ∂Ω ( 1b )

hu = r on ∂Ω ( 1c )

The first equation (1a) is satisfied inside the domain Ω and the second (1b)
(generalized Neumann boundary) and third (1c) (Dirichlet boundary) equations are
both satisfied on the boundary of the domain δΩ. n is the outward unit normal and is
calculated internally. λ is an unknown vector-valued function called the Lagrange
multiplier. This multiplier is also calculated internally and will only be used in the
case of mixed boundary conditions. The coefficients da , c, α , ß, γ, a, f, g, q and r are
scalars, vectors, matrices or tensors. Their components can be functions of the space,
time and the solution u. For a steady state system in coefficient form da = 0. Often c
is called the diffusion coefficient, α and ß are convection coefficients, a is the
absorption coefficient and γ and f are source terms.

Other forms of the PDEs and boundary conditions available in Comsol are the general
and weak forms. In this paper only the coefficient form is used.

Example: Comsol code and results of a 2D steady state thermal bridge

A 2D steady state thermal bridge problem is used as an example of how Comsol

works. In figure 1 the geometry of the 2D thermal bridge problem is shown.

external b1

concrete b2

insulation b3
b4
b7

b5 internal

b6
Figure 1. The geometry of the 2D thermal bridge example, see table I for boundary
conditions specifications.

Figure 1 represents half of a horizontal section of an insulated external wall. B7 is the

axis of symmetry. The internal wall, surrounded by b5, b6 en b7 intersects the
insulation and forms a so-called thermal bridge.
In table I the lengths and boundary conditions of each boundary segment are given.

Table I. Boundary specifications of the 2D thermal bridge problem (figure 1), where
T is the temperature on the boundary and Ti and Te respectively are the internal and
external temperatures.

Boundary Boundary Boundary Boundary condition

Segment Type Segment length [m] [Wm-2]
b1 external 1.0 φ=hce*(Te-T)
b2 adiabatic 0.2 φ=0
b3 adiabatic 0.1 φ=0
b4 internal 0.8 φ=hci*(Ti-T)
b5 internal 0.7 φ=hci*(Ti-T)
b6 adiabatic 0.2 φ=0
b7 adiabatic 1.0 φ=0

The PDE model for the inside of the domain is given by:

∇ ⋅ ( K∇ T ) = 0 (2)

Where K is thermal conductivity and T is temperature. Using the coefficient form (1a)
and the PDE model (2), it follows that u equals T and the coefficients of (1a) are all
zero (a= da = f= α= ß = γ =0 ) except c. The c coefficient equals the heat
conductivities at the sub domains concrete (Kconcr) and insulation (Kinsul). The
boundary values are heat fluxes and so the Neumann condition is applied. For
example, boundary condition b1: f = hce*(Te-T) is represented by taking q = hce , g =
hce*Te in eq. (1b). Note that the term n·c▼u in (1b) represents the heat flow into the
domain and is calculated internally and the term λ in (1b) is zero because mixed
boundary conditions are not applied in this example.
In Comsol there are generally speaking two ways to implement problems: by user
interface or by scripts. The user interface can be seen as a tool that generates scripts.
In order to show how it works, figure 2 shows the complete Comsol script to solve the
example problem. The default values of all PDE and boundary coefficients are 0. Also
some comments (%) are included for better understanding of the code.
%CONSTANTS
hi=7.7; %heat transfer coefficient internal
he=25; %heat transfer coefficient external
Ti=20; %air temperature internal
Te=-10; %air temperature external
KCONCR=1; %heat conductivity concrete
KINSUL=0.03; %heat conductivity insulation

%GEOMETRY: poly2(XDATA,YDATA) ; 2D polygon

CONCR=poly2([0 0 1 1 0.2 0.2],[0 1 1 0.8 0.8 0]); %concrete
INSUL=poly2([0.2 0.2 1 1],[0.7 0.8 0.8 0.7]); %insulation
fem.geom=CONCR+INSUL; %fem geometry
fem.dim=1;%fem geometry

%COEFFICIENTS OF THE PDE/Boundary problem

fem.equ.c={KCONCR KINSUL}; % fem coefficient c
fem.bnd.g={0 0 he*Te hi*Ti 0 hi*Ti 0 0 0}; % fem coefficient g
fem.bnd.q={0 0 he*Te hi 0 hi 0 0 0}; % fem coefficient q
fem.mesh=meshinit(fem); % initialize mesh
fem.xmesh=meshextend(fem); % extended mesh
fem.sol=femlin(fem); % solve, steady problem
meshplot(fem) % solve, steady problem
postplot(fem,'tridata','u','tribar','on') % plot solution

Figure 2. The complete Comsol code for solving the 2D thermal bridge problem.

The initial mesh is presented in figure 3, and the solution* in figure 4.

*
Also temperature ratios and transmission coefficients can be calculated
Figure 3. The mesh of the 2D thermal bridge problem.

Figure 4. The solution (temperature distribution) of the 2D thermal bridge problem.

This example shows the transparency and flexibility of PDE models in Comsol. The
reader should notice that in this Section we focused on how Comsol works. For
introducing Comsol for educational purposes we don’t start with scripts but with the
user interface. This is presented in the following Section.
INTRODUCTION OF NUMERICAL EXERCISES
In this Section we introduce the exercises and how to start.

How to start?
The Comsol Class kit version allows up to 30 students to work simultaneously with
Comsol. For exercises we assume that each student has a laptop available connected
within our local network. After installing the software from a server the students are
ready to start with the introduction of Comsol.
There is an overwhelming amount of literature available which can be used for
introducing Comsol to students. We refer to the website of Comsol [9] as a good
starting point for finding introduction guides. Because our students have a background
in building physics, they are already familiar with thermal bridges. So we introduce
Comsol by showing how the thermal bridge of figure 1 can be simulated using a
tutorial involving hands-on learning for new users of Comsol. A summary of this
tutorial is provided below.
After starting Comsol the first thing the graduates have to do is to select a new
application mode using the Model Navigator. See figure 5.

Figure 5. The Model Navigator and selecting an application suitable for modeling 2D
heat transfer in solids.
After this selection, the main user interface appears. See figure 6.

Figure 6. The main user interface of Comsol

The basic flow of actions is indicated by the order of the toolbar buttons and the
menus. It works from left to right when defining, solving, and post processing a
model. We skip File-Edit-Options for now and proceed with Draw. This button is
used to enter the geometry. Figure 7 shows the geometry of our example problem to
be built by the students.
Figure 7. The geometry to be built.

After this step, the Physics has to be provided. Using the corresponding menu the
PDE coefficients (i.e. heat conduction coefficient for concrete and insulation) and
boundary conditions (i.e. the heat transfer coefficients and surrounding temperatures)
are entered. At this point, most work has been done for this type of problem. The
Mesh is automatically generated by the corresponding menu, providing figure 3.
Solving (Solve) and plotting the results (Postprocessing) provides figure 4.

This concludes the introduction of Comsol and we proceed with the exercises. The
following table provides a summary of the six exercises:
Table II. Overview of the exercises
Exercise nr. 1D/2D/3D (H)eat / Moisture (S)teady (S)tate /
(T)ransient
1 2D H SS
2 2D H T
3 3D H SST
4 2D M SS
5 1D M T
6 2D HM SST
STEADY STATE HEAT TRANSPORT

Goals
The students learn:
1. The relation with their current knowledge on heat transport, the corresponding PDE
and boundary conditions.
2. What the effect is of adding (inside/outside) insulation material.
3. To recognize different types of thermal bridges.
4. To evaluate thermal constructions using the appropriate performance indicators.

Exercise 1.
(1) The graduates start with the modeling and simulation of a homogeneous external
wall construction of concrete with a thickness of 0.20m.:

Figure 8. A homogeneous external wall construction

After simulation of the temperature distribution using COMSOL, the following

thermal resistance network (already familiar for the students) is used for verification
of the simulated surface temperatures:
 Re = 0.04 Rc = 0.2 Ri = 0.13
Te Ti

Te,s Ti,s

Figure 9. Thermal resistance network

With R is thermal resistance [m2K/W]; T is temperature [oC]; Indices: e, external; i,

internal; c, construction, s, surface.

(2) The graduates proceed with adding 8 cm of insulation at respectively the outside and
inside of the homogeneous wall. The surface temperatures at the outside, interface and
inside surfaces, heat loss and U-value of the construction are calculated by hand and by a
numerical computation. The students should notice what the effect is of insulating the
external wall on the heat fluxes and surface temperatures and the difference between
outdoor and indoor insulation.

(3) The students proceed with constructing a corner of the external wall. This case will
change to 2D heat transfer. The students can make a subdivision in outdoor corners
(largest external surface) and indoor corners.

Figure 10. Homogenous corner walls

Another example of 2D heat transfer is a thermal bridge formed by a break in the

insulation material of an external wall by a well conductive material like concrete as
shown in figure 11.
Figure 11. Thermal bridge formed by a break in the insulation material

The following figure shows a compilation of the results obtained by the students.

Figure 12. Four examples of thermal bridges

(4) The following performance indicators are calculated for each thermal bridge of
figure 12: The lowest inside surface temperature, which is a measure for the
condensation risk and the total heat flow per meter construction (W/m), which is a
measure for energy losses.
TRANSIENT HEAT TRANSPORT

Goals
The students learn:
1. What the effect is of entering dynamics into the equation.
2. What the effect is of daily and yearly fluctuations and using real climate data.
3. To evaluate dynamic thermal results using performance indicators

Exercise 2.
(1+2) First, the graduates will start with an estimate of the transient behavior of the
external wall (see figure 12 bottom left/right) by a sine curve modeled outdoor climate
using a global expression:

Figure 13. A global expression

The students will make an estimation of the transient behavior during a day and during a
year. The following figure shows a compilation of the results obtain by the students.

Figure 14. Transient heat transfer in two constructions with insulation material at
different sides.
The students study their produced animations of the dynamic temperature
distributions to estimate the penetration depths of the daily and yearly fluctuations and
to show the effect of position of the insulation material on the occurring temperature
differences in the concrete. The latter is important for the mechanical behavior of the
concrete construction.

So far, the simulations results are not very realistic due to the artificial approximation
of the external temperature (sinus curve). To improve this, the hourly values from a
climate data file for the outdoor temperature with and without solar irradiation are
implemented into the models. Comparing with the results above, the students should
conclude that real climate data are necessary.

(3) For the dynamic case, the following performance indicators are calculated: The
lowest inside surface temperature during a cold period and the total heat loss per meter
construction (MJ/m) during a year.
CASE STUDY: A STEEL BEAM PENETRATING INSIDE INSULATION 3D

Goals
The students learn:
1. To implement a 3D application from a real case from the practice
2. To evaluate dynamic 3D thermal results using the related performance indicators

Exercise 3.
(1+2) In the design study of the Art Gallery in Rotterdam the architect (Rem Koolhaas)
made the decision to use inside insulation. The outdoor facade is formed by 250 mm
concrete at the outside, 80 mm insulation material at the inside, finished by gypsum
board at the inside surface. The internal floor constructions were supported by steel IPE
300 beams. The steel beams are forming 3D thermal bridges by penetrating the inside
insulation. Furthermore the steel beams are not protected against fire. Table III shows the
materials properties and Figure 15 presents the vertical sections of the construction.

Table III. Material properties

Material thermal conductivity density specific heat
k [W/m.K] ρ [kg/m3] c [J/kg.K]
Concrete 1.6 2500 840
Mineral wool 0.037 50 840
Gypsum board 0.2 850 850

Figure 15. The design of the construction.

The students calculate the (steady state) 3D thermal bridge effect of the uninsulated steel
beams penetrating the insulation material. Furthermore they use the already mentioned
performance indicators but now applied to a 3D construction. They make two
animations showing the most critical place during the summer and during the winter.
In the real case, it was decided that the steel beam should be insulated. The graduates are
asked to make a proposal for the thickness and kind of insulation under the condition
that the RH near the coldest surface should not exceed 70 %RH. Furthermore they need
to show that their design meets this requirement. Figure 16 shows an exemplary result
obtained by the students:

Figure 16. Exemplary result of the temperature distribution

STEADY STATE MOISTURE (VAPOUR) TRANSPORT

Goals
The students learn:
1. The relation with their current knowledge on vapour transport, the corresponding
PDE and boundary conditions.
2. To implement and simulate vapour transport.
3. To evaluate hygric constructions using the important performance indicators.
4. To make use of vapor resistant barriers to improve the situation.

Exercise 4.
(1+2) In this part, the students will make a calculation of the vapor transfer through
external walls. The graduates start with 1D steady state calculations of the three types of
walls of the first exercise: non insulated wall, internal insulated and external insulated
wall. The students model and simulate the vapor distributions of each of three walls for a
typical winter and summer situation (thus in total six variants). They find out what the
appropriate material properties and boundary conditions are. After plotting the vapor
pressure across the cross section of each variant, the graduates make use of the
calculated temperatures across the walls from exercise 1 to calculate the saturated vapor
pressures from these section temperatures and plot these values. Figure 17 shows the
vapour distribution obtained by the students

Figure 17. Vapour distribution (left) and saturation vapour distribution (right)
(3) The graduates evaluate the risk for condensation in the cross section of the walls and
estimate the condensation amounts during a month. Figure 18 provides the condensation
risk distribution.

Figure 18. Condensation risk with outside (left) and inside (right) insulation

(4) The students simulate the use of vapor resistant barriers to improve the situation
above in case of condensation problems. They repeat the calculations in these cases with
a vapor barrier at the indoor and outdoor surfaces and formulate conclusions.
TRANSIENT MOISTURE (LIQUID) TRANSPORT

Goals
The students learn:
1. The relation with their current knowledge on liquid transport, the corresponding
PDE and boundary conditions.
2. To implement and simulate liquid transport, including realistic material properties
3. To evaluate the performance of building materials during drying and wetting

Exercise
(1+2+3) The wetting and drying of concrete and sand-lime brick under isothermal
conditions is considered. The students start with the following construction: The external
blade of a vertical construction (width 0.10 m) consisting of concrete or sand-lime brick.
See figure 19.

Figure 19. The concept constructions used for studying liquid transport. Left: sand-lime
brick, right: concrete.

The physical problem is that the concrete and sand-lime brick are both saturated with
moisture (rain penetration) caused by a leakage during the past. The first goal is to
estimate the drying times of both materials. The students calculate the drying times of
both materials (concrete and sand-lime brick) using simplified material properties and
steady state conditions outside. They calculate again the drying times of both materials,
but now use moisture dependent material properties and a fluctuating external vapour
pressure. The second goal is to investigate whether runoff occurs during heavy rain
showers for both materials. The graduates calculate the moisture content near the surface
during heavy rain showers and evaluate whether runoff occurs for concrete and sand-
lime brick. They use the previous model and implement a variable external climate using
a file containing the external vapour pressure and precipitation. Figure 20 shows an
exemplary result obtained by the students
Figure 20. Exemplary result of liquid transport. The moisture content in the concrete
at the external surface (blue), 1 mm (green) and 2 mm (red) inside the material.

The graduates observe that the moisture content at the external surface exceeds the
saturation moisture content of 150 kg/m3 and should conclude that rain driven runoff
has occurred.
CASE STUDY: HYGRO THERMAL DESIGN OF BUILDING FACADE (2D)

Goal
The students learn to apply the gain heat and moisture modeling skills for a real case.

Exercise 6.
The students start with studying a paper on the design of the façade of an office
building [44]. The design is presented in figure 21 and the material properties are
provided in Table IV.

Figure 21. The vertical section of the façade.

Table IV. Thermal and hygric properties of the building materials

Thermal Density Diffusion

conductivity. resistance
Material
K ρ μ
[W/(m∙K)] [kg/m3] [-]
Brick 0.6 1900 10
Natural stone 2.3 2440 140
PUR 0.035 33 50
Concrete 1.6 2300 180
Mineral wool 0.040 60 1.3
XPS 0.034 30 100

The first step is to reproduce some results of the paper. While using COMSOL, the
graduates simulate the minimal surface temperature at the inside of the construction
(see figure 21) using an equivalent heat conduction coefficient for the cavity.

Figure 22. An exemplary result: The steady state temperature distribution of the
façade.

The next step is to simulate two more variants: polyurethane (PUR) in the cavity and
extruded polystryrene (XPS) at the inside surface. All three steady state models will
be extended step-by-step to transient heat and moisture transfer models.
Thermal transient - The students simulate again the minimal surface temperature at
the inside of the construction for the three variants. The simulation is now transient by
using an external climate file containing hourly values for the air temperature and
solar radiation and a steady indoor climate. They use the climate files of previous
exercises.
Adding moisture (hygric) - The following step is to model vapor transport (Hygric,
steady state). The students simulate similar to part 1, the vapor pressure distribution
and calculate the maximum vapor pressure at the inside surface of the construction for
the three variants.
Hygric, transient – The graduates simulate again the maximum vapor pressure at the
inside of the construction for the three variants but now transient using an external
climate file containing hourly values for the vapor pressure and a steady indoor
climate. The last step of this case study is to develop a combined model for heat and
vapor transport.
Thermal - hygric, steady state – The students simulate the relative humidity
distribution (RH) and calculate the maximum RH at the inside surface of the
construction for the three variants.
Thermal – hygric , transient – They simulate again the maximum RH at the inside of
the construction for the three variants but now transient using an external climate file
and a steady indoor climate and use the climate files of previous exercises.
Figure 23 shows exemplary results obtained by the students.
Figure 23. Exemplary results. Left: Using PUR in the cavity, top: temperature
distribution; bottom: relative humidity. Right: Similar using XPS.

For this exercise, the students should conclude that the insulation retrofitting of a
facade with a natural stone slab has important building physical effects. Thermal and
hygric simulations show that the occurrence of condensing moisture at the slab
surface in the gap depends on the choice of insulation material and the place it is
installed. Furthermore, this case study shows the potential of multiphysics modeling
capabilities of Comsol. Most of the commercial building physical simulation tools do
not include this kind of complex interactions.
CONCLUSIONS
It is concluded that the multiphysics package COMSOL is very useful for teaching
heat and moisture transport modeling in the research area of building physics. The
main advantages are:
* Abstraction level. The theory based on PDEs can be relative easily implemented in
the models.
* Solving capabilities. Most of the time the quality of the solution of the PDE problem
is acceptable using the default settings.
* User interface. The students appreciated the presence of an intuitive user interface,
especially when modeling 3D problems.
* Graphical output. The visualization tools provide a good opportunity to critically
evaluate the simulation results.
All together it is possible to make complicated models and produce simulations
results within a short time also for non experienced software users.

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3D Modeling of Packaged Foods Proceedings of the COMSOL Users
Conference 2006 Milano, 6 pages available at http://www.comsol.com/ (2006)
26. A. W. M. van Schijndel, The Effect of Air Movement on the Heat and Moisture
Characteristics of Building Constructions, Proceedings of the COMSOL Users
Conference 2007 Grenoble, 7 pages available at http://www.comsol.com/ (2007)
27. T. Fong, M. Chui, and D. L. Freyberg, The Use of COMSOL for Integrated
Hydrological Modeling Proceedings of the COMSOL Conference 2007, Boston,
7 pages available at http://www.comsol.com/ (2007)
28. A.W.M. van Schijndel, Heat and Moisture Modeling Benchmarks using
COMSOL Proceedings of the COMSOL Conference 2008 Hannover, 5 pages
available at http://www.comsol.com/ (2008)
29. M. de Bonis, and G. Ruocco, A Multiphysics Approach to Fundamental
Conjugate Drying by Forced Convection Proceedings of the COMSOL
 Conference 2008 Hannover, 7 pages available at http://www.comsol.com/
(2008)
30. G. Cammarata, and G. Petrone, A Numerical Investigation on Active Chilled
Beams for Indoor Air Conditioning Proceedings of the COMSOL Conference
2008 Hannover, 7 pages available at http://www.comsol.com/ (2008)
31. Barletta, A., Lazzari, S., 2D Free Convection in a Porous Cavity Heated by an
Internal Circular Boundary Proceedings of the COMSOL Multiphysics User's
Conference 2005 Stockholm, 6 pages available at http://www.comsol.com/
(2005)
32. Lee, Y., Finite Element Simulation of the Oscillatory Flow in a Channel with the
Heat Transfer through a Hot Bump, Proceedings of the COMSOL Multiphysics
User's Conference 2005 Boston, 6 pages available at http://www.comsol.com/
(2005)
33. B.A. Finlayson, Using COMSOL Multiphysics to Model Viscoelastic Fluid Flow
Proceedings of the COMSOL Users Conference 2006 Boston, 9 pages available
at http://www.comsol.com/ (2006)
34. S. A. Osman, and M. T. Ismail, Wind Loads Prediction Using Three-Dimensional
Simulation of k-ε Turbulence Model, Proceedings of the COMSOL Users
Conference 2007 Kuala Lumpur, 5 pages available at http://www.comsol.com/
(2007)
35. C. Balocco, Investigation of Natural Ventilation Techniques in Historical
Buildings, a Case Study in Palermo, Proceedings of the COMSOL Users
Conference 2007 Grenoble, 5 pages available at http://www.comsol.com/ (2007)
36. J. Frassy, C. Lecot, M. Murariu, C. Delattre, and A. Soucemarianadin, Modeling
of Drops Spreading on Random Surfaces, Proceedings of the COMSOL Users
Conference 2007 Grenoble, 5 pages available at http://www.comsol.com/ (2007)
37. C. Balocco, Analysis of Ancient Natural Ventilation Systems inside the Pitti
Palace in Florence Proceedings of the COMSOL Conference 2008 Hannover, 7
pages available at http://www.comsol.com/ (2008)
38. T. van Goch, and A. van Schijndel, Validation of DNS Techniques for Dynamic
Combined Indoor Air and Constructions Simulations Using an Experimental
Scale Model Proceedings of the COMSOL Conference 2008 Hannover, 8 pages
available at http://www.comsol.com/ (2008)
 39. M. Diaz-Viera, D. Lopez-Falcon, A. Moctezuma-Berthier, and A. Ortiz-Tapia,
COMSOL Implementation of a Multiphase Fluid Flow Model in Porous Media
Proceedings of the COMSOL Conference 2008 Boston, 7 pages available at
http://www.comsol.com/ (2008)
40 . R. Ababou, Cañamón, I., Elorza, J., Thermo-Hydro-Mechanical Simulation of a
3D Fractured Porous Rock Preliminary Study of Coupled Matrix-fracture
Hydraulics, Proceedings of the COMSOL Multiphysics User's Conference 2005
Paris, 6 pages available at http://www.comsol.com/ (2005)
41. P. Kucera, Thermal-mechanical Analysis of Concrete Structure Exposed to High
Temperature Proceedings of the COMSOL Users Conference 2007 Grenoble, 5
pages available at http://www.comsol.com/ (2007)
42. W. Joppich, N. Kopp, and D. Samokhvalov, Numerical Behavior of Different
COMSOL Solution Methods for a Heat Transfer Problem Coupled with a
Structural Mechanics Problem, Proceedings of the COMSOL Users Conference
2007 Grenoble, 7 pages available at http://www.comsol.com/ (2007)
43. A. Vermeltfoort, and A.W.M. van Schijndel, Modelling of Lintel-Masonry
Interaction Using COMSOL, Proceedings of the COMSOL Conference 2008
Hannover, 9 pages available at http://www.comsol.com/ (2008)
44. H. L. Schellen, A.W.M. van Schijndel, The use of COMSOL to solve hygro
thermal building physical problems related to insulating high rise building
facades. Proceedings of the COMSOL Users Conference 2007 Grenoble, 7
pages available at http://www.comsol.com/ (2007)

*****

A.W.M. (Jos) van Schijndel is assistant professor at the Eindhoven University of

Technology, Department of Architecture, Building and Planning, Netherlands. His
areas of research include integrated heat air and moisture modeling and control.

H.L. (Henk) Schellen, is associate professor at the Eindhoven University of

Technology, Department of Architecture, Building and Planning, Netherlands. His
current research involves building physical aspects of monumental buildings

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