Air Barrier Materials, Components, Systems & Assemblies

Air Barrier Components

Air barrier components are defined as the material or product which is used to connect different air barrier materials or assemblies together to make the air barrier continuous. Examples of air barrier components include materials used to connect the wall air barrier assembly to a window or door assembly, a roof assembly or a foundation assembly. They can also be used to connect two pieces of air barrier material together to produce an assembly.

The air permeance of these materials are tested in a similar way to an air barrier material but as they are normally used to bridge two different materials, the testing is done and report per length of a defined gap. The air permaeance of air barrier components are no greater than 0.02L/(s•m²) @ 75Pa. (0.004 cfm/ft²  @ 1.57 psf)

The testing is done on a wall specimen which has a window blank with gaps between the window blank and the wall and also has vertical and horizontal gaps in the wall materials.

The test assembly is configured as follows;