Hygrothermal Modelling in Practice: Dynamic Condensation Analysis for Façades
One Old Wall, Insulated From Inside — A Complete Framework for Dynamic Hygrothermal Simulation
Course Description
This course takes on a job that sounds harmless: insulating an old, solid masonry wall from the inside, to make a building warmer and cheaper to heat. But add insulation on the inside, and the masonry behind it turns colder and wetter than it used to be — the warmth that once seeped through and dried it out no longer reaches it. The simple, month-by-month condensation check cannot see this problem. This course shows you the method that can.
Dynamic hygrothermal analysis tracks heat and moisture together, through every layer of a wall, hour by hour, across real years of weather. It follows liquid water drawn through a material's own pores, accounts for the water a material stores and releases, and lets real rain and real sun fall on the wall — three things the simpler, steady method can never see.
You will follow one real wall from the first decision to a defensible verdict: judging when dynamic analysis is genuinely required, selecting the worst-exposed fragment, gathering the extra moisture data this method demands, and building the assembly honestly inside a dynamic hygrothermal programme.
The course teaches you to set exposure, climate, and run length correctly — including why a run must continue for several years before its results mean anything — and to verify a model before trusting it, because a dynamic simulation will produce a confident, detailed, completely wrong answer just as readily as a correct one.
It shows you how to read a genuinely honest result: judging a wall's long-term moisture balance, zooming in on its critical positions rather than trusting the average, and testing each one against the three real ways a wall comes to harm — mould, frost, and rot — before writing up a report that stands on its own.
Presented by Eugene Korch (façade engineer and IAST Programme Director, this course gives you the advanced method for the hard, wet, high-stakes cases the rest of this course's condensation work cannot answer — and the judgement to know exactly when you need it.
Included in Facade Intelligence Professional Membership (FI PRO)
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this course, you will be able to:
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Judge when a wall genuinely needs dynamic hygrothermal analysis rather than the simpler, monthly condensation check, and recognise the trigger cases: interior insulation, absorbent masonry, vapour-open build-ups, and green roofs
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Select a representative cross-section for dynamic analysis, and choose the worst, most rain-exposed orientation to test the hardest case a wall will really face
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Distinguish which risks belong in a one-dimensional cross-section and which — such as a buried timber joist end or a window reveal — require the two-dimensional version of the programme instead
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Assemble the five categories of input data a dynamic run needs: the build-up, full material moisture properties, the outdoor climate, the indoor climate, and a realistic starting moisture
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Identify the two additional material properties dynamic analysis requires beyond thermal conductivity and vapour resistance: moisture storage and liquid (capillary) transport
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Build a wall assembly honestly inside a dynamic hygrothermal programme, assigning real rather than generic material data, and modelling real details such as coatings, ventilated cavities, and smart vapour-control membranes
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Choose sensible monitor positions at the locations most likely to fail — an interface, a buried element, an interior surface — before running a calculation
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Set orientation, height, and surface transfer coefficients correctly, including the special case of a ventilated cladding’s true outside boundary
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Choose a realistic, defensible starting moisture for each layer, and explain why an unrealistic starting point corrupts the whole run
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Assign an hour-by-hour outdoor climate and a use-appropriate indoor humidity class, and explain why both must reflect the real project rather than a convenient assumption
What's Covered
Part 1 — Why Dynamic Analysis Is Needed, and Selecting the Method and Fragment
When the simpler, monthly method is not enough: interior insulation, absorbent masonry, vapour-open build-ups, and green roofs.
What dynamic analysis actually adds: real liquid water movement, moisture storage, and real rain and sun.
Meeting the worked example: an old masonry wall, newly insulated on the inside, with its two hidden risk spots.
Choosing the fragment: a plain repeating cross-section, on the worst rain-exposed face.
Which risks stay in a flat, one-dimensional slice, and which — a buried joist, a reveal — need the two-dimensional tool instead.
Part 2 — Collecting Input Data and Building the Assembly
The five things to gather before opening the programme: build-up, full material data, both climates, and a starting moisture.
The two extra material properties dynamic analysis demands: moisture storage and liquid transport.
Rebuilding the wall honestly inside the programme, assigning real rather than generic material data.
Modelling the real details that quietly decide the story: coatings, ventilated cavities, and smart vapour-control membranes.
Choosing monitor positions at the exact spots most likely to fail.
Part 3 — Setting Exposure, Climates, and Run Length
Orientation, height, and surface transfer coefficients, including the ventilated-cladding special case.
Choosing a realistic starting moisture, and why the first stretch of any run is just recovery, not reality.
Assigning a real, hour-by-hour outdoor climate and a use-appropriate indoor humidity class.
Setting a run long enough to reach a repeating annual cycle, and a grid fine enough at the critical interface.
Part 4 — Verifying, Running, and Reading the Result
Why verification matters more here than anywhere else in the course, and where to look hardest.
Watching a run behave: a healthy, repeating saw-tooth versus an unstable or slowly climbing water-content curve.
Reading the moisture balance across years, and zooming in on the critical positions rather than the average.
The three real questions at every critical spot: mould, frost, and rot.
Part 5 — Producing the Report and Avoiding Common Errors
What a defensible dynamic hygrothermal report must contain, and the graphics that prove a verdict on their own.
The most common invisible errors: the wrong climate or orientation, unreliable moisture data, a poor starting point or a short run, and misreading a genuinely good result.
Part 6 — Conclusion
The whole path in one thread: decide, select, gather, build, set, run, judge.
The one idea to carry forward: the programme calculates, the engineer is responsible.
Where this fits in the toolkit, and what comes next: junctions and buried details in two dimensions.
Your Instructor
Programme Director, IAST Eugene Korch
Eugene is a façade engineer and educator with extensive experience in building envelope design and technical specification. Through the Institute for Architectural Science and Technology (IAST) and Facade Intelligence, he delivers CPD training to architects and construction professionals across the UK. His teaching approach emphasizes practical application and accessibility, making complex technical subjects understandable for design professionals.
Course Schedule
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Course Overview
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Course Objectives
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How to Navigate the Learning Materials
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Introduction Video
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Lecture
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Post-Lecture Reading List
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Certificate: Download & Share
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About this course
- £120.00
- Practice test questions
- CPD Certificate: 2 hrs
Who Should Enrol
This course is designed for:
Façade Engineers and Building Physics Consultants assessing moisture risk in solid or absorbent walls.
Retrofit and Heritage Specialists working on internally insulated historic buildings.
Architects specifying interior insulation for existing solid-wall buildings.
Building Envelope Consultants reviewing or producing dynamic hygrothermal calculations.
Project Managers and Design Managers overseeing retrofit packages where moisture risk is a deliverable.
Course Details
Format: Self-paced online course with video lectures.
Duration: Approximately 70 minutes.
CPD Points: 2 hours structured CPD / 2 Learning Units.
Access: 12 months from enrolment.
Certificate: CPD certificate issued upon completion.
Prerequisites: Recommended — our condensation risk and mould growth overview course, and a working understanding of basic condensation calculation (covered in our foundational courses).
What Makes This Course Different
One real wall, start to finish: an old masonry wall insulated from the inside, carried from the first decision through to a defensible, multi-year verdict.
Honest about a genuinely advanced method: teaches not just the button-presses, but the judgement of when this heavier tool earns its cost over the simpler check.
Covers the traps unique to dynamic analysis: a poor starting moisture, a run cut short, and the quiet difference between recovery and reality.
Directly relevant to retrofit and heritage work: the interior-insulation case this course is built around is one of the most common, and riskiest, jobs in building retrofit today.
A full, honest standards registry: covering the European dynamic and steady methods, the German WTA interior-insulation guidance, and the US and Australian equivalents.
Join the Facade Intelligence Professional Membership (FI PRO)
Membership fees start from £320 per year
Gain access to all upcoming seminars and a wide range of the most sought-after short courses.
Corporate discounts are available for teams of 10 or more.
For a bespoke quote, please contact our team at [email protected].
