## 3 Results
### Results from the Drying Simulations
#### 3.5.2 Results from the Drying Simulations  
The simulation results from the drying phases are presented in Figures 10-12. The simulation time was 5500 h (229 days). The average moisture content of the wood frame was monitored during the drying phase. In HI5 and HI6 structures, this value represents the outmost 200 mm part of the 50 \(\times\) 350 mm\({}^{2}\) frame and, in HI7, this value represents the moisture content of the outer frame (Appendix A). Figure 10: **(a–d)** The moisture content results from the drying simulations. The simulation started during summer **(a,b)** and during autumn **(c,d)**. The simulation results are divided in two subfigures based on the thermal insulation level of the weather barrier layer (low thermal insulation level **(a,c)**, high thermal insulation level **(b,d)**). Differences in the drying rates were observed during the summer-winter simulation (Figure 10a,b). During the first 100 days, wall HI11 had the lowest drying rate. At the end of simulation, the moisture loss was lowest in the HI7 wall with 13.5 wt-% moisture content in the frame. Walls HI9-11 had the second lowest drying rates, ending with 12.3 wt-% MC. Wall HI5 had the fifth lowest drying rate, with a final MC of 11.2 wt-%. The final MC for the other HI and BL walls varied between 8.5-10.5 wt-%. The drying rate in wall HI7 was deteriorated during the cold season when the drying almost ceased. This could be connected to the hygrothermal behavior of this extremely highly insulated wall (650 mm); the temperature in the warm side of the wb-mineral wool is near the outdoor air temperature despite the relatively high thermal resistance outside the frame. In walls HI9-HI11, with 300 mm insulation thickness, the drying rate was higher than in wall HI7. The same applied for wall HI5, with 450 mm insulation thickness and the same wb-material and thickness as in wall HI7. These results suggest that, with high total insulation levels reaching 650 mm, the thermal resistance of 50 mm mineral wool in the wb-layer does not guarantee the highest drying rates. Furthermore, the thermal resistance of the wb-layer should probably be some minimum proportion of overall R-value of the wall structure. This is evident from the low final MC results in walls HI1-4. Wall HI4 had the highest drying rate, with a final moisture content of 8.5 wt-% and walls HI1-3 finished second with MC between 9.3-9.4 wt-%. The R\({}_{\rm wb}\)/R\({}_{\rm t}\) -ratios (Table A2) were 20% for walls HI1-3 and 33% for wall HI4. For wall HI7, the R\({}_{\rm wb}\)/R\({}_{\rm t}\) -ratio was 9% and for wall HI5 it was 14%. The drying of walls HI1-3 was almost identical. This suggests that the PA-foil as vapor barrier or gypsum behind wb-mineral wool does not affect drying rates. The wall HI6 was the second wall with 100 mm wb-insulation, in addition to wall HI4. This did not ensure as high a drying rate as in wall HI4, which could result from the higher overall insulation thickness (450 mm) in wall HI6. However, the drying rate in wall HI6 was higher compared to wall HI5, both with same total insulation thickness. This further supports the positive effect of higher R\({}_{\rm wb}\)/R\({}_{\rm t}\) -ratio on the drying rates. Figure 11: (**a–d**) The relative humidity results from the drying simulations. The simulation started during summer (**a**,**b**) and during autumn (**c**,**d**). The simulation results are divided in two subfigures based on the thermal insulation level of the weather barrier layer (low thermal insulation level (**a**,**c**), high thermal insulation level (**b**,**d**)). During the first 70-80 days of the summer-winter simulation, walls BL1-2 had the highest drying rates (Figure 10a). After 50 days of simulation the MC in walls BL1-2 was 13.2-13.8 wt-% whereas in other walls the MC varied between 14.5-17.0 wt-%. The final MC in walls BL1-2 was 10.0-10.3 wt-%, which was at the same level as in the other BL walls.