Patent ID: 8087313

Claim:
A method for estimating in-service water uptake range in materials comprising the steps of: identifying the geographic scope of a material's expected use; selecting two geographic regions that are representative of opposing in-service relative humidity extremes to which the material is expected to be subjected; obtaining temperature and relative humidity data in the two selected geographic regions over a predetermined period of time and at a predetermined interval; calculating average relative humidity, and average temperature for the two selected geographic regions; providing at least a first test sample and a second test sample of the material; simulating a first set of extreme in-service weather conditions and an opposing second set of extreme in-service weather conditions using the calculated temperature and relative humidity quantities, and subjecting each test sample to one set of conditions; determining a change in mass, of the first test sample and the second test sample after subjecting the test samples to respective sets of simulated extreme in-service weather conditions; converting the mass changes into amounts of water taken up; recording the water uptake of the first test sample as a first range limit, and the water uptake of the second test sample as an opposing second range limit; and determining the estimated water uptake range to be the range defined by the first and second range limits.