The knowledge of moisture migration inside building materials and
construction building components is decisive for the way they behave
when in use. The durability, waterproofing, degrading aspect and thermal
behaviour of these materials are strongly influenced by the existence of
moisture within their interior, which provoke changes in their normal
performance, something that is normally hard to predict. Due to the
awareness of this problem, the scientific community have per-formed
various studies about the existence of moisture inside porous materials.
The complex aspects of moisture migration phenomenon tended to encompass
monolithic building elements, since the existence of joints or layers
contributes to the change of moisture transfer along the respective
building element that contribute to the change of mass transfer law. The
presentation of an experimental analyses concerning moisture transfer in
the interface of material that makes up masonry is described in such a
way as to evaluate the durability and/or avoid building damages.
In this work it was analysed, during the wetting process, the influence
of different types of interface, commonly observed in masonry, such as:
perfect con-tact, joints of cement mortar, lime mortar, and the air
space interface. The results allow the calculation of the hygric
resistance. With these results, it is possible to use any advanced
hygrothermal simulation program to study the water transport in building
elements, considering different interfaces and their hygric resistance.
