Experimental Study to Find Thermal Conductivity Coefficient for Concrete Mixed with Styropor

Abstract

Thermal insulation properties of a blend mixture composed of different percentages (50% ,60% ,70% and 80%) of styropor with concrete and sand of equal volumetric percentages 15%, 20%, 25%,and 10% respectively. This study includes calibration of instruments for measuring the heat transferred through samples and investigating the way that used for calculating the proportions of mixing for each sample.

Finally the experiments were conducted in order to determine the correlation of thermal conductivity of each sample with its mean temperature. It was demonstrated that the new mixture has good rank of thermal properties among the other insulators, with thermal conductivity of 0.3 w/m.oC. This value is lower than the mean value of thermal conductivity values of concrete insulators in the buildings. Experiments are carried out under a temperature range of (14- 70) oC and under different volumetric proportions of the mixture.

The experimental results showed that the behavior of the thermal conductivity with the mean temperature on the two faces of the sample is directly proportional like the other insulators.