What's New in WUFI 5.0

The major new features of the new version WUFI 5.0, released in November 2009, are:

• Besides the cartesian grid geometry for plane wall assemblies that has been used exclusively up to now, WUFI 5.0 also allows assemblies with radial symmetry. This broadens WUFI's scope to objects like insulated cooling pipes or similar geometries.
   
• WUFI 5.0 can use materials with temperature-dependent heat capacity. Possible applications include wall assemblies which contain phase change materials (PCM) for thermal regulation.
   
• If needed, the temperature-dependence of the thermal conductivity can now also be accounted for (in addition to the moisture-dependence which has been a feature ever since WUFI's inception).
   
• Materials from the building materials database MASEA and the materials listed in the standard DIN 4108-4 have been added to the material database. (The latter have no hygric data except the μ value. The user must decide case by case whether they can be used in a hygrothermal calculation.)
   
• In addition to the usual measured thermal conductivity, commercial products listed in the material database may now also have a design value for the thermal conductivity which may be used for design purposes.
   
• The list of included international weather files now also comprises Wellington (New Zealand), Buenos Aires (Argentina), Santiago de Chile (Chile), Bolzano, Modena and Turin (Italy, further Italian weather files will follow). In addition to the 1986 test reference years for the former West Germany which had been included since version 4.2, WUFI now also includes the new (2004) test reference years issued by the German Weather Service for the whole federal territory and their extreme summer and winter versions.
   
• The option to shift a weather file's air temperatures by a user-editable constant amount (as suggested by standard DIN EN 15026) allows to expose building components to harsher conditions even if the original weather data represent typical average conditions.
   
• A moisture source in the wall may now be controlled by a new infiltration model which describes the amount of moisture appearing there because of exchange with the indoor air.
   
• The computational problems created when a moisture source's output overwhelms the local absorption capacity of the wall material can now be avoided by specifying an appropriate user-selectable maximum water content. The amount of water by which the source had to be reduced in order to comply with the prescribed limit is reported in the calculation results.
   
• If desired, pictures for documentation can be added to the project.
   
• For the commercial products contained in the material database product images, company logos and weblinks can be displayed.
   
• WUFI 5.0 may now also be switched to Italian or Spanish language.
   
• The new XML-based project file structure will facilitate backward compatibility with future program versions.
   
• Material data can now be imported and exported for easier data exchange.
   

• The main new feature in WUFI 5.1 is the possibility to integrate postprocessors for evaluating and assessing the raw hygrothermal data produced by WUFI. The postprocessors are displayed in the postprocessor bar of WUFI 5.1 or its film viewer Animation1D and can be directly called from these programs, with the calculation results automatically being transferred to the postprocessor.
  Users can create their own postprocessors tailor-made for their specific needs. Postprocessors of general interest may be shared with other WUFI users.

Page created: 14 Oct 2009; last update: 26 Jan 2011