DESCRIPTION OF THE SESSION

Air leakages have an increasing impact on the overall energy performance of new buildings. Therefore, since the early 2000’s, regulations in many countries explicitly account for airtightness, sometimes with mandatory requirements, as a consequence of Europe’s ambition to generalize nearly zero energy buildings by 2030. However, having a requirement on building airtightness is relevant only if the airtightness level is durable. Nevertheless, studies have shown that a mandatory level of airtightness leads to last-minute taping and mastic setting that is most probably not durable. 

The durability of airtightness products and assemblies at mid- and long-term scales is, therefore, a pending question. Indeed, this subject remains very complex, since it covers in the meantime: 

• the modelling of the mechanisms of buildings’ and products’ loads and deformations, 
• the accelerated ageing in laboratory-controlled conditions and,  
• the performance characterization from field measurements results. 

In the past years, several studies have focused on this issue using two different approaches. Some studies seek to characterize the evolution over time of the airtightness by field measurements in real buildings. The other studies are based on laboratory measurements in order to test the accelerated ageing of airtightness products.

OBJECTIVES OF THE SESSION

Two topical sessions have already been organised on this subject in 2017 and 2022, the objective of this one is to give an update of recent works performed on this subject, more precisely on what happen the first year of life of the building and on the impact of implementation conditions. 

SESSION PROGRAMME

1. Introduction: presentation of the session. Valérie Leprince, Cerema, France
2. Impact of dust build-up on building airtightness durability – preliminary results of the Durabilitair project (2021-2025).  Andres Litvak, Cerema, France
3. On the potential of HAMSTER’s bi-climatic chamber for testing building component airtightness durability, Martin Prignon, Buildwise, Belgium
4. Research on airtightness durability in Norway, Bozena Dorota Hrynyszyn, Dr Eng Arch, NTNU, Norway & Tore Kolstad Linløkken, NTNU, Norway
5. Evaluating the long-term performance of air barrier systems in modern buildings, Sean O’Brien, Simpson Gumpertz & Heger Inc, USA

SESSION CHAIRS

1. Valérie Leprince, Cerema, France

SESSION DURATION

• 90 minutes