Inspecciones en la gestión del agua de fachadas ventiladas basadas en la evaluación in situ y pruebas de laboratorio = Insights in the water management characteristics of rear-ventilated façades based on on-site assessment and laboratory testing

Rear-ventilated façades are contemporary façade construction systems, which incorporate water management features into their design and construction. However, quite often these water management features do not properly work in the whole enclosure syste due to bad design of the constructive details, construction flaws in the façade or gaps in the understanding of the rain infiltration mechanisms causing water to penetrate in these systems. Consequently, the aim of his paper is to present some insights of how the water management features of rear-ventilated façades perform in the whole enclosure system of the building. Subsequently, a full-scale mock-up has been tested in laboratory conditions. Finally, a comparison between the on-site analysis and the results obtained in the laboratory tests has been made, concluding that it is possible to improve the water management performance of rear-ventilated façades to the combined action of wind-driven rain and driving rain wind pressures if the mechanisms that might cause water infiltration are well understood.