Composite materials with enhanced moisture exchange speed

Materials with a high water vapour capacity but low permeability can be made useful in assemblies or extrusions with a high surface area.

Perforated brick can be surface coated with a clay by dipping it in a slurry, a process much used for glazing pottery. The bricks can be stacked with the coated recesses facing the room, or can be stacked to make vertical chimneys which will react with convecting air streams. Cardboard tubes, as used for posting large maps and posters, can also be assembled into a convecting wall cladding, using the heat flow through an external wall to drive convection. Lightweight buffer materials, typically organic, can be made into ceiling tiles with both acoustic and buffer properties.

The response of perforated and labyrinthine materials was tested in a climate chamber big enough to hold a typical piece of the assembly and convect or fan air through the structure.