The Effect of Clay Consistency on the Thermophysical Properties of Composite Material Clay-straw

Using agricultural waste materials such as wheat straw in the manufacture of construction materials may present several advantages enabling the reduction of the energy consumption and the environmental impact in the building sector. The purpose of this investigation is to examine the effect of the consistency of clay and the variation of straw mass fraction on the thermophysical properties of the composite material clay-straw. Therefore, we studied the thermal behavior of the different samples by mixing clay in two different consistency (liquid and plastic consistency) with different percentages of saturated straw (1, 2, 3, 4 and 5%, respectively). Experimental measurements using flash and state hot plate methods are conducted in order to measure the apparent thermal diffusivity and the apparent thermal conductivity, respectively. Results demonstrated that whatever the clay consistency used, the addition of straw in the clay matrix improve the thermal properties. It is shown as well that the consistency of clay affects significantly the apparent density and the thermal behavior of the composites studied.