Thermal Analysis of Lightweight Clay Bricks with Typha-Fiber Additives
Publication: Journal of Energy Engineering
Volume 147, Issue 4
Abstract
This paper assesses the thermal performance of reinforced Typha-fibers unfired clay bricks. Various Typha additive proportions (0%, 1%, 3%, 7%, 15%, and 20%), by weight in a fibrous form, have been prepared for experimental testing. X-ray diffraction and fluorescence analysis showed that exploited clay is suitable for construction purposes with a predominant quartz () content. Collected findings showed that higher Typha-fiber proportions produced brick samples with higher porosity levels. The highest recorded porosity, 14.95%, was obtained with the incorporation of a 20% additive, compared to a 1.14% porosity percentage for reference samples. This resulted in the production of more porous bricks with improved thermal properties. In fact, at a 20% Typha-fibers additive content, and respective thermal conductivity and specific heat capacity values were recorded, compared to and at the reference samples. This represents 43% and 23% gains in thermal conductivity and specific heat capacity, respectively. A dynamic thermal inertia simulation was also carried out in the TRNSYS Type 56 software to evaluate the time lag and decrement factor parameters of prepared specimens as walling structures of a reference house. A total of 38% and 45% gains in the time lag and decrement factor were obtained with the incorporation of the highest additive proportion, 20%, compared to reference samples. Finally, four mathematical models are used to evaluate the thermal performance, in terms of thermal conductivity and specific heat capacity, of the studied specimens as a function of the measured porosity. The comparison drawn between the models’ theoretically predicted thermal properties and experimentally measured ones reflected a positive association between the two as the obtained correlation coefficient was found to be very close to 1.
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Data Availability Statement
All data, models, and code generated or used during the study appear in the published article.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the Centre National pour la Recherche Scientifique et Technique (CNRST) for their support during this research project. This work was funded by the Centre National pour la Recherche Scientifique et Technique (CNRST).
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Published In
Journal of Energy Engineering
Volume 147 • Issue 4 • August 2021
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© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jul 15, 2020
Accepted: Jan 28, 2021
Published online: May 11, 2021
Published in print: Aug 1, 2021
Discussion open until: Oct 11, 2021
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