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Thermal Conductivity of Some Major Building Materials in Saudi Arabia
Abstract
The objective of this work was to measure the thermal conductivity of the more common building materials used in Saudi Arabia and compare the results with the data reported in handbooks These materials included seven types of clay bricks, one type of sandlime bricks, five types of concrete blocks and one type of pre fabricated wall The study shows that, although the thermal conductivities of these materials lie within the range of the values reported in handbooks, they are on the higher side of the range.
... Abdelrahman et al. [55] measured the thermal conductivities of several common building materials using a guarded hot plate. The authors highlighted the difference between the measured values and those reported in the literature due to the effects of the mean temperature, the material density and the level of moisture content. ...
The strict energy saving standards are based on the declared values of the materials, i.e. U-value, thermal conductivity or thermal capacity. To this end, proper knowledge of the thermophysical properties of the wall components is needed, especially with regard to new lightweight technologies that are being used in building construction/refurbishment, under the dynamic conditions of the Mediterranean climate, where one of most important parameters of building materials is their heat capacity because of the influence of solar radiation energy. With this regard, the actual heat capacity value, obtained in laboratory tests, is typically quite different from the nominal one. So, this paper reviews several methods of calculating the heat capacities of materials and several worldwide applications, with the aim of providing an overview of the thermal behaviour of lightweight insulation materials and their implications for energy and indoor comfort. Finally, the authors propose a simple method able to evaluate the specific heat capacity of real scale building materials with a ~5% of uncertainty.
... The CF is a potential material to act as a poring agent that could improve the insulation of building envelope materials. Pores agent was created during the firing process, thus decreased the thermal conductivity [44]. ...
Topical climate countries like Malaysia, consumption of energy for cooling the indoor environment of the building is about 70 %. As part of the building envelope, wall accounts for a significant proportion of heat gain and heat loss. The materials used for wall which commonly clay bricks or cement bricks have a tendency for fabric heat gain into the building. This high energy consumption is mostly related to poor thermal performance of the building envelope. Therefore, a good wall component is a considerable importance in creating energy efficient buildings and for maintaining comfortable conditions in enclosed spaces and able act as an insulator to reduce excessive heat gain from the outside. The aim of this study was to investigate the potential of using an empty fruit bunch (EFB) and coconut fibre (CF) from agricultural waste as a poring agent in the production of low thermal clay bricks. This study also provides an alternative disposal method for agricultural waste fibre which have good potential to use and incorporate with existing material to become a sustainable material for the construction industry. Agricultural wastes used in this study are EFB and CF with a proportion of 0%, 5%, and 10%. Physical-mechanical properties of bricks, including compressive strength, water absorption and thermal conductivity were examined. The results indicated that, the EFB added with 5% meet the minimum requirement of the BS392:1985 for compressive strength and water absorption; and ASTM C517 for thermal conductivity. It was concluded that the use of EFB and CF as an admixture in production of low thermal fired clay bricks is viable for thermal property enhancement of the building envelope. Therefore, commercial development is highly promising.
... Air-conditioning requires about 73% of total electricity consumed in residential buildings according to another of our studies [2]. In Saudi Arabia the environment is hot and in some places also humid, thus, knowledge of the thermal properties of building materials is essential in building design and in selecting air-conditioning systems [3,4]. The load due to thermal transmission through a building envelope (walls and roof) constitutes an appreciable percent of the total thermal load. ...
This paper presents the assessment of thermal performance of nine types of clay brick and two types of concrete brick in use in Saudi Arabia. The results are based on the experimentally measured values of equivalent thermal conductivity. The analysis of the measured data showed that the addition of insulation material either within the masonry brick mix to make the brick more lightweight or through filling insulation material into the holes of masonry bricks increases the thermal resistance significantly. Red clay brick were found more thermally effective than concrete brick. Use of insulating mortar in building walls increases the thermal resistance compared to that of the walls prepared with ordinary concrete mortar. An economic analysis shows that the insulated clay brick (type 7) is the most effective among the types of brick studied as it has the lowest net present value (NPV) of 36.9$/m2. The load due to thermal transmission through a building envelope (walls and roof) constitutes an appreciable percent a building’s total thermal load. Therefore, long-term studies of the thermal performance of building materials should be conducted to establish thermally optimal brick for usage in building construction in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
... This study compares the energy consumption of a typical house built with different types of masonry building materials, as shown in Table 5 and Figure 3. Thermal and physical properties of the building materials were taken from the manufacturer's catalogs and from other references [18,19]. Energy simulation runs were made for different wall and roof configuration as shown in Table 6. ...
The building energy analysis program DOE-2.1E was used to simulate the annual energy consumption for a typical residential house built with different types of masonry building materials. The results show that for the base house the thermal transmission through the walls and roof constitutes more than half of the total peak cooling load. It was found that a house built with gypsum block a causes a maximum reduction of 13.2% in energy consumption when compared to that of the base house. However, insulating the base house causes a significant reduction in the airconditioning equipment capacity and consequently reduction in energy consumption by about 42%. Savings in energy by using the option of gypsum block walls or insulating the walls and roof should be weighed against the additional investment and payback period for the options.
... A short review of some previous studies with emphasis on those conducted on locally manufactured and used insulation and building materials in Saudi Arabia. Abdelrahman et al. [3] used a guarded hot plate to measure the thermal conductivity values of some of the building materials commonly used in Saudi Arabia and compared the results with the data reported in the literature . The measurements were conducted at an average sample temperature of about 40 °C. ...
The paper reports on the measuring technique and values of the measured thermal properties of some commonly used insulation materials produced by local manufacturers in Saudi Arabia. Among the thermal properties of insulation materials, the thermal conductivity (k) is regarded to be the most important since it affects directly the resistance to transmission of heat (R-value) that the insulation material must offer. Other thermal properties, like the specific heat capacity (c) and density (ρ), are also important only under transient conditions. A well-suited and accurate method for measuring the thermal conductivity and diffusivity of materials is the transient plane source (TPS) technique, which is also called the hot disk (HD). This new technique is used in the present study to measure the thermal conductivity of some insulation materials at room temperature as well as at different elevated temperature levels expected to be reached in practice when these insulations are used in air-conditioned buildings in hot climates. Besides, thermal conductivity values of the same type of insulation material are measured for samples with different densities; generally, higher density insulations are used in building roofs than in walls. The results show that the thermal conductivity increases with increasing temperature and decreases with increasing density over the temperature and density ranges considered in the present investigation.
The production of cellulose in the nano-scale size and their application as a reinforcement in the construction materials have gained increasing attention due to their unique properties, such as high tensile strength and modulus of elasticity, and large specific surface area. This study aimed to evaluate the mechanical, physical and thermal behaviour of extruded earth-based matrix reinforced with 0.1, 0.3, and 0.5%wt. of nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC). The results have shown that the mechanical nanofibrillation process of fibre improves its thermal stability. Their inclusion in an earthen matrix satisfactorily increases flexural strength and specific energy, while there is no significant increase in the composite's water absorption and thermal conductivity. The inclusion of a less than 0.5%wt. of raffia NFC contributes to fill the voids and arrest the propagation of nanoscale crack and improve the packing density of the earth-based composite for the development of the eco-friendly housing solution.
The aim of this research was to reduce the demand for air conditioning in buildings by minimizing the heat flow from outdoor environment to the interior of building envelopes (walls and roofs). Hence, a finite element model (FEM) was developed to find out the optimum geometry of cavities and their layout in masonry concrete blocks in order to reduce the thermal flow of heat and the results were compared with that of hollow blocks available in the market in terms of thermal insulation. Results of the simulation were promising and indicated that the new ‘‘optimum” designed geometry of hollow blocks was much better than the hollow blocks available in the market. Thereafter, some insulation materials were utilized in the concrete mixtures to produce hollow masonry concrete blocks to reduce the thermal conductivity through wall elements. Experimentally, the results of the new block with optimum geometry without the insulation materials showed improved thermal insulation by as much as 71% compared to other designs of hollow blocks including those available in the market. The thermal resistance of concrete and masonry blocks with the insulation materials (perlite, rubber and polyethylene) was enticing and significant. The newly developed optimum design of masonry concrete block with and without the insulation materials satisfied the ASTM C129 requirements for non-load bearing walls in terms of strength and absorption and was considered as medium weight (without insulation material) and as lightweight (with insulation materials) masonry hollow blocks. Results of this comprehensive investigation also indicated that the thermal conductivity could be reduced by up to 40% compared to that of the conventional blocks available in the market. Therefore, it is recommended that these optimum designed blocks be utilized by the construction industry in order to reduce the amount of energy used for the air conditioning as well as the carbon footprint
The thermal conductivity (λ) and the specific heat (cp) of seven polyurethane foam formulations and their melts are obtained using a transient plane source technique called the Hot Disk experiment. In the experiment, the Hot Disk sensor is sandwiched by the samples and acts as both a heat source and a temperature sensor. The fundamental assumption is that throughout the experiment, the heat from the sensor does not penetrate beyond the boundaries of the sample. The suitable sample dimensions and sensor radius are determined from the preliminary calculations. Through sensitivity analysis, the appropriate measuring time and output power for the experiments are established. For polyurethane foams, λ ranges from 0.048 to 0.050 W/m K, and cp ranges from 2359 to 2996 J/kg K. For melts, λ ranges from 0.186 to 0.200 W/m K, and cp ranges from 1958 to 2076 J/kg K. When foam decomposes into melts, the changes in thermophysical properties shows λ increases by approximately 300%, whereas cp decreases by approximately 20%. On the basis of these changes, the collapse of the foam structure into melt appears to improve the heat transfer through the material. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The objective of this study was to assess the thermal performance and economic assessment of different types of clay and concrete masonry brick wall samples used in building construction. In this study, eighteen types of clay bricks and two types of concrete bricks were analyzed for thermal performance. The bricks were classified and grouped based on the brick configuration, material, and size. The analysis of the results shows that the equivalent thermal conductivity does not depend only on the brick material and configuration but also on the brick thickness. The bricks having same configuration and size, the equivalent thermal conductivity variation is large depending on the type of material used, especially for concrete brick. In general, the brick with lesser thickness has lower conductivity as compared to those having higher thickness. However, the effect of brick length on equivalent thermal conductivity is insignificant. The economic analysis showed that the insulated clay brick type 16 is the most economical brick among the types of brick studied Moreover, it is worthwhile to note that the net present value of normal concrete brick (type 19) is reduced by about 45% by making the concrete brick lightweight (type 20).
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