A Study of Mould Growth Using HAMT EnergyPlus Simulation Method in Warm and Humid Climate of Mangalore, India

Abstract

Most of the southern Indian cities are in the warm and humid coastal belt where the summer and winter mean temperature varies between 25 and 35 °C and 20 and 30 °C, respectively, with mean relative humidity, responsible for mould growth in buildings, ranging as high as 70–90% across the year. This paper focuses on identifying the mould growth index (MGI) using Heat and Mass Transfer analysis in EnergyPlus (v-9.3) for an autoclaved aerated concrete (AAC) wall assembly in the warm–humid climate of Mangalore. It is found that AAC has an annual mean MGI of 3.5, and that key drivers for mould growth are surface temperature and surface humidity.