Assessing Durability of Historic Masonry Walls with Calibrated Energy Models and Hygrothermal Modeling

This article presents a methodology for calibrating an energy model to hourly measured temperature data with the goal assessing durability of a mass masonry tower in its present state and projecting the impact, that plausible retrofit scenarios may have on durability. The case study for this project is a load-bearing masonry structure constructed in 1867 which has been suffering from chronic moisture-related deterioration for much of its existence. The tower was instrumented to record relative humidity and temperature beginning in September 2017. Energy modeling software in combination with an optimization program was used to develop a calibrated model that could predict interior temperatures and relative humidity. Using the calibrated energy model, hygrothermal simulations were performed to see how changes to the interior ambient conditions affected the wall. The number of freeze cycles and moisture content were projected throughout the cross-section of the masonry compared to baseline conditions.