Dynamic Hygrothermal Simulations to Study the Effects of Rising Damp in the Venetian Building Heritage

Climate change has had an impact on the cities in which we live, and indirectly also on the buildings in which we live. These buildings must be increasingly high performing to ensure indoor comfort for users, to prevent the occurrence of disease and limit energy consumption. These assessments are carried out on both new and existing buildings. It is precisely on the latter that this work focuses on a peculiar case study such as the city of Venice (Italy), where historic buildings must undergo a high level of renovation to ensure the EU’s targets to limit global temperature rise. In fact, climate change has also influenced the Venetian lagoon, increasing the sea level affecting buildings built in direct contact with salt water, causing damage on an aesthetic level but above all on a physical level, with the decrease in energy performance, and structural level, with the loss of materials. The final goal is to evaluate the amount of water absorbed within the individual materials that make up historic masonry and determine the evaporation time, which is useful for assessing the timing of renovation and what technologies are adaptable in this type of historic building heritage to limit incompatibility at the structural and aesthetic levels. This study uses dynamic hygro-thermal simulations to assess the water content and dynamics of rising damp in the in-dividual material or structural complex.