STUDY OF CONVECTIVE PHENOMENA INSIDE CAVITIES COUPLED WITH HEAT AND MASS TRANSFERS THROUGH POROUS-MEDIA - APPLICATION TO VERTICAL HOLLOW BRICKS - A FIRST APPROACH

Building structures often contain cavities or layers of air. Because o f this, it is difficult to describe the transfer phenomena, which are in fact heat transfers (conductive, convective and radiative), as well as mass transfers through porous media. Numerous studies have dealt w ith each of these transfers separately, but few have managed to descri be the interrelation between them. This paper represents an initial ap proach to the problem, by attempting to describe the influence of the moisture level on heat transfers occurring through hollow vertical ter ra-cotta bricks. A theoretical modelization of exchanges has been carr ied out in order to determine radiative and convective exchange coeffi cients. A mass exchange coefficient has then been deduced. The results obtained show a high sensitivity of the heat flux to the moisture lev el of the surroundings. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights rese rved.