Materials Thermal Analysis Laboratory
Abstract
This article describes the operation of a thermal analysis laboratory for construction materials. It consists of commercial equipment and equipment created in-house, with machines designed, built, and commissioned to measure variables that allow the calculation of the thermal conductivity and resistance of homogeneous and nonhomogeneous materials and construction systems. The overall objective of the work is to describe the existing equipment, its characteristics and operation, but mainly the self-designed machines that work with full-scale samples of walls measuring 1.20 m at the base and 2.00 m in height. This article presents the measurement method for all the equipment, selecting a construction material as an example, and the results section presents a collection of thermal conductivity and/or thermal resistance values for various materials, components, and construction systems such as mortars, mud brick walls, hollow concrete blocks, wood, drywall, and prefabricated insulating materials.
Keywords
Thermal conductivity, thermal resistance, apparatus, laboratory, thermal analysis