Managing climate in museums is always a challenging task since it should meet the needs of multiple stakeholders, namely the conservation of collections, the comfort of visitors, and the protection of historic buildings. The relative humidity is one of the most crucial parameters in this management process, and it is controlled by passive design and active design approaches. In the renovation of museums, it is preferable to optimize the passive design and minimize the use of the active design that results in substantial energy consumption and high cost. The application of hygroscopic materials is one of the most effective passive design strategies, and some of them are already used on construction, such as wood and plaster. Nevertheless, silica gel, as a kind of hygroscopic materials with higher moisture capacity, is only used in the display case currently. So, the goal of this thesis is to study its application in the exhibition room and evaluate its effect on the stabilization of relative humidity, reduction in ventilation flow rate, and decrease in energy demand. The research is also combined with a case study, which is the renovation of the National Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam, and the aim of clients is to achieve climate class A1 in the exhibition room. Model 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 with different complexity are created in Matlab/Simulink, which forms a schematic study of modeling. With the validation implemented in Design Builder, the accuracy of model 3.0 is proved, and it is determined as the main simulation tool. Model 3.0 consists of the thermal part, the hygric part, and the air handling unit part. In terms of simulation, it is based on the renovation plan of the National Holocaust Museum. A series of scenarios are defined at first, and the variables are the presence or absence of silica gel, the number of visitors, the ventilation flow rate, and the setpoint of humidity control. The simulation is done on two scales: one exhibition room and the whole building. With the amount of silica gel equal to 0.1% of the volume of the simulated object, the fluctuation of relative humidity reduces by a factor of 2 on the level of both room and building. Furthermore, 18.9% of energy for humidification and dehumidification can be saved. There is a possibility of decreasing the ventilation flow rate from 12 L/s per person to 6 L/s per person with almost 90% data meeting the A1 requirements at the same time.
The study shows the silica gel is capable of stabilizing the relative humidity fluctuation significantly with the additional benefits of energy savings and reduction in ventilation flow rate. It is recommended to apply this concept in practice as a trial, and further research about its hygrothermal performance can be done in the future.