Durable adhesive airtight solutions for energy efficient building envelopes - TightEN

The project Durable Adhesive Airtight Solutions for Energy Efficient Building Envelopes (TightEN) addresses the need for ensuring a satisfactory long-term airtightness of adhesive solutions so that new and renovated buildings will remain energy efficient throughout their lifetime. To meet current requirements for airtightness in new constructions and to enhance energy efficiency in the renovation of existing buildings, it has become common to use various adhesive solutions, such as tapes, self-adhesive cuffs, and sealing tapes. The project aims to ensure that these solutions are durable over time, maintaining energy efficiency throughout the building's lifespan. To date, there is limited knowledge about the durability of different adhesive solutions, especially in Nordic climates. Deterioration of airtightness due to failure in adhesive systems could lead to a significant increase in heat loss from the building, thereby compromising energy efficiency over time. Activities and results from the project: The ZEB Laboratory (www.zeblab.no) in Trondheim was equipped with temperature measurement equipment in 2020, logging the climate in the ventilated space behind the cladding around the building; data is available on Zenodo. A comprehensive field and laboratory experiment on the aging of tape has been conducted. Several master's theses on various building physics issues have been written at NTNU (and in collaboration with SFI Climate 2050). Numerous scientific and popular science articles have been published from the project.

Prosjektet har hatt stor nytteverdi for flere forskningsfelt: Microklima, bestandighet og levetid, PSA (pressure sensitiv adhesives), dataanalyse, forsøksdesign, luftlekkasjer, for å nevne noen. Vi har hatt mulighet å engasjere oss i diverse faglige forer og publiserer på faglig anerkjente internasjonale konferanser. Prosjektet har gjort at vårt fagmiljø er kjent internasjonalt for disse forskningsfeltet og våre forskere har klart å etablere verdifullt internasjonalt samarbeid som vil gi oss samarbeidsmuligheter i framtiden. Verdien av TightEN for næringslivet har vært at de har fått (og vil få når de siste resultatene er publisert) et bedre kunnskapsgrunnlag for utvikling av sine produkter (teip og andre klebeløsninger), en større trygghet at disse løsningene (som bare har vært på markedet i et drøyt tiår), har den bestandigheten som trengs. Dermed vil samfunnsnytten også være til stede, både ved at man unngår at det blir økt forbruk av energi ved luftlekkasjer fra bygninger og unngått fuktskader ved feil bruk av løsningene.

The project Durable Adhesive Airtight Solutions for Energy Efficient Building Envelopes (TightEN) addresses the need for ensuring a satisfactory long-term airtightness of adhesive solutions so that new and renovated buildings will remain energy efficient throughout their lifetime. Airtight building envelopes are essential for energy efficient buildings, and as the requirements for airtightness were increased, adhesive solutions have become necessary to obtain and secure a high airtightness performance. To date, there is little knowledge on the durability of the adhesive products available, especially in Nordic climate. A deterioration of the airtightness system will lead to increased heat loss and thereby undermine the energy efficiency over the years. TightEN studies the durability of these adhesive solutions through theoretical and experimental investigations. The durability studies will be performed at a material level and a large-scale integration level, and the impacts on energy efficiency and moisture robustness will be evaluated. This project will be a substantial contribution to merging state-of-the-art models for polymer adhesion with practical research questions in the field of airtight building envelopes. The goal is to develop reliable test and evaluation methods for adhesive products and full-scale airtightness system testing that can be used in both product development and system certifications. Probabilistic methods and sensitivity analysis will be used to increase understanding and validate the methodology. On a building level, the most critical building details will be investigated regarding their functionality, and state of the art sealing methods will be proposed in order to meet future requirements regarding air-leakage rates. The developed test methods will be of immediate use to the industry and society, and the knowledge gained from the project will be extremely useful for future research on building materials exposed to weathering.