Evaluating water vapor permeance measurement techniques for highly permeable membranes

The cup method and dynamic moisture permeation cell (DMPC) method are two common techniques used to determine the water vapor permeation properties of a membrane. Often, ignoring the resistance of boundary air layers to the transport of water vapor results in the water vapor permeance of the membrane being underestimated in practical tests. The measurement errors are higher with highly permeable membranes. In this study, the two methods were simulated using COMSOL Multiphysics platform and the extent of the error was evaluated. Initial results showed that the error is equally high in both methods. With the correction for the still air gap, the cup method produces a relatively reduced error. In the DMPC method, reducing the error caused by the boundary air layer by increasing the sweep speed can produce higher instrument error. Highly accurate and precise instrument is needed for DMPC method; however, its error is still higher than that in the cup method. Simulations also show that lowering the test pressure is favorable to both methods.