Thermophysical Characterization of Moist Porous Media: Toward a Transient Inverse Approach

This work reports some recent progress in the simultaneous identification of both thermophysical and hygrometric properties of moist porous media by means of a single transient experiment. Some preliminary simulated and experimental results are presented with particular reference to light porous insulating materials in presence of moisture, by using, as parameter estimator, the Kalman filter. Advantages and drawbacks of two different transport models are discussed and a strategy to face up the inverse solution is investigated The results, based on simulated experiments, put in evidence an optimum behavior of the Kalman filter and the feasibility to identify all the unknown parameters, both heat and mass diffusion properties, by using thermal measurements only. This last feature, could be of great practical importance, because the dynamic local moisture content is difficult to measure. The proposed approach leads the way to the construction of an inverse algorithm addressed to the dynamic estimation of the shape of the sorption isotherm and of other thermophysical and transport properties of a moist porous body.