Md Azree Othuman Mydin CRL Letters Vol.

2(1) 2011

www.crl.issres.net Vol. 2 (1) – March 2011

Effective thermal conductivity of foamcrete of

different densities
Md Azree Othuman Mydin1
1
School of Housing, Building and Planning, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800, Penang,
Malaysia

Abstract

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the thermal conductivity of foamcrete.
Various densities of foamcrete samples ranging from 650, 700, 800, 900, 1000, 1100 and
1200 kg/m3 with constant cement-sand ratio of 2:1 and water-cement ratio of 0.5 were
produced. This study was limited to the effect of density, porosity and pore size on thermal
conductivity of foamcrete. Hot-guarded Plate method was used to obtain the thermal
conductivity of foamcrete at different densities. The porosity value of foamcrete was
determined through the Vacuum Saturation Apparatus. In turn to examine the effect of pore
size on thermal conductivity of foamcrete, pore size measurements were made under a
microscope with a magnification of 60x. Lower density foamcrete translates to lower
thermal conductivity. The density of foamcrete is controlled by the porosity where lower
density foamcrete indicates greater porosity. Therefore, thermal conductivity changes
considerably with the porosity of foamcrete because air is the poorest conductor compared
to solid and liquid due to its molecular structure.

Keywords: foamed concrete, thermal conductivity, hot-guarded plate, thermal properties,

lightweight concrete, porous material

1. Introduction

Energy efficiency is a significant issue for high quality housing. Energy not only corresponds
to high percentage of the running cost of buildings but it also has a main effect on the thermal
comfort of the occupants. These days, the demand for energy efficient design and construction has
become progressively more vital with the growing of energy costs and increasing awareness on the
effects of global warming. Buildings, as they are designed and used today, contribute to serious
environmental problems because excessive consumption of energy and other natural sources. The
close connection between energy use in buildings and environmental damage arises because energy-
intensive solutions sought to construct a building and meet its demands for heating, cooling,
ventilation and lighting cause severe depletion of precious environmental resources.

1
Corresponding Author: Md Azree, Email: [email protected]
© 2009-2012 All rights reserved. ISSR Journals

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 Effective thermal conductivity of foamcrete of different densities

One of the methods to decrease the energy content of buildings is through selection of
building materials. Strain on conventional energy can be reduced by utilization of low energy
materials and efficient structural design. The choice of materials also helps to maximize indoor
comfort. For example, the use of materials and components with small embodied energy or low
thermal conductivity has enhanced the indoor comfort in building. Thus, a high level of insulation
in any new material development is an essential step to an energy efficient design.
Thermal conductivity, k, is the process of the conduction of high-temperature thermal
energy within an object or between two objects in contact, which lowers the temperature. In
physics, thermal conductivity, k, is the property of a material describing its ability to conduct heat.
It appears principally in Fourier's Law for heat conduction. When an object is heated, the vibration
of the molecules or atoms and the floating of free electrons discharge thermal energy to the lower
temperatures in the course of kinetic energy conduction. According to molecular dynamics, an
object’s temperature is in a direct proportion to the mean kinetic energy of its composition [1].
2
Thermal conductivity (W/m K) is the result of thermal diffusibility (cm /s), specific heat (J/g K) and
density [2] and is influenced by its own mineral characteristics, pore structure, chemical
composition, moisture and temperature. The energy performance of a building greatly depends on
the thermal conductivity of the building materials which depicts the capability of heat to flow across
the material in the presence of a differential temperature [3]. The thermal conductivities of ordinary
heat insulating materials range from 0.034 to 0.173 W/m K [1].
Hence, the utilization of low thermal conductivity building materials is important to
decrease heat gain through the envelope into the building in hot climate country like Malaysia.
Foamcrete has been acknowledged for its superior performance in thermal insulation and sound
insulation characteristics due to its cellular microstructure. The thermal conductivity of foamcrete
typically is 5 to 30% of that of normal weight concrete and range from between 0.1 and 0.7 W/mK
for dry density values of 600 to 1600 kg/m3 respectively [4,5]. In practical terms normal weight
concrete would have to be 5 times thicker than foamcrete ones to achieve similar thermal insulation
[6]. The thermal conductivity of foamcrete with 1000 kg/m3 density is reported to be one-sixth the
value of typical cement-sand mortar [7]. Since foamcrete is made by injecting air into a cement
based mixture, the density of foamcrete is directly a function of the air inside foamcrete.
Expectedly, the density of foamcrete should play an important role in determining its thermal
properties. A reduction in foamcrete density by 100 kg/m3 results in a lessening in its thermal
conductivity by 0.04 W/mK [8].
This study intends to investigate the thermal conductivity of foamcrete of different densities
and establish the key factors affecting the thermal conductivity of this material. foamcrete of seven
densities (650, 700, 800, 900, 1000, 1100 and 1200 kg/m3) will be cast and tested at ambient
temperature to obtain its effective thermal conductivity using hot-guarded plate method.

2. Experimental Program

Foamcrete is a relatively new construction material compared to normal strength concrete. The
major factor limiting the use of foamcrete in applications is insufficient knowledge of the material
performance at elevated temperatures. In building application, load carrying capacity and fire
resistance are the most important safety requirements. In order to comprehend and eventually
predict the performance of foamcrete based systems, the material properties at ambient temperature
and elevated temperatures must be known at first stage. To be able to predict the fire resistance of a
building structure, the temperatures in the structure must be determined. For quantification of
structural performance, knowledge of the mechanical properties, at elevated temperatures of the
material is essential. Foamcrete mechanical properties will be established, including compressive

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strength, compressive modulus, strain at maximum compressive strength, compressive stress-strain

relationship, failure modes, flexural tensile strength and flexural tensile modulus.

2.1. Materials

The foamcrete used in this study was made from Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC),
fine sand, water and stable foam. The main objectives of this research are to determine the
thermal conductivity of foamcrete at ambient temperature therefore only a constant cement-
sand ratio of 2:1 and water-cement ratio of 0.5 will be used for all batches of foamcrete
samples made for this study. A water-cement ratio of 0.5 was found satisfactory to attain
sufficient workability [9]. In general, the raw materials used are as follows.

2.1.1. Cement

Portland cement obtained from Cima Group of Companies Sdn. Bhd. (Perak,
Malaysia) was used in this study. The Portland cement used complies with the Type I
Portland cement as in ASTM C150 [10] and BS12 [11].

2.1.2. Sand

Fine sand with additional sieving to remove particles greater than 2.36 mm was used
in the mix, to improve the foamcrete flow characteristics and stability as in BS12620 [12].

2.1.3. Water

Through this experimental study tap water was used for the manufacture the
foamcrete samples.

2.1.4. Surfactants

The surfactants (foaming agent) used was Noraite PA-1 (protein based) which is
suitable for foamcrete densities ranging from 600 to 1600 kg/m3. Noraite PA-1 comes from
natural sources and has a weight of around 80 gram/litre and expands about 12.5 times when
used with the foam generator. The stable foam was produced using foam generator
Portafoam TM2 System [13].

2.2. Foamcrete compositions

In the current investigation, foamcrete samples each measured 300mm x 300mm x

50mm were made at seven different densities namely 650, 700, 800, 900, 1000, 1100 and
1200 kg/m3. All foamcrete samples were made in house. The cement was mixed with sand
and water was mixed in the mixer for a few minutes. Then foam was added gradually until
the desired densities were obtained. The ratio of cement, sand and foam mixture was 2:1:0.5.
Three identical specimens were prepared for each density and were tested using hot-guarded
plate method at 14 days after mixing. Further details of the mix constituent proportions and
the densities are outlined in Table 1. The target foamcrete volume required for each mix
design was 0.1 m3.

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 Effective thermal conductivity of foamcrete of different densities

TABLE 1: MIX CONSTITUENT PROPORTIONS OF FOAMCRETE MIXES

Portland
Target dry Target wet Sand Noraite PA-1
Cement
density density Cement:Sand Water:cement content surfactant
content
(kg/m3) (kg/m3) (kg/m3) (m3)
(kg/m3)
650 774 2:1 0.5 39 19 0.063
700 826 2:1 0.5 41 21 0.060
800 929 2:1 0.5 46 23 0.055
900 1033 2:1 0.5 52 26 0.050
1000 1136 2:1 0.5 57 28 0.045
1100 1239 2:1 0.5 62 31 0.040
1200 1343 2:1 0.5 67 34 0.035

2.3. Hot-guarded Plate Tests

The HGP test followed the ASTM procedure in reference [14]. The hot guarded plate
test is generally recognized as the primary absolute method for measurement of the thermal
transmission properties of homogeneous insulation materials in the form of flat slabs. This
steady-state test method has been standardized by ASTM International as ASTM Standard
Test Method C 177.
The basic HGP method consists principally of a hot plate and a cold plate. In a HGP
test, the test specimen is placed on a flat plate heater assembly consisting of an electrically
heated inner plate (main heater) surrounded by a guard heater. The guard heater is carefully
controlled to maintain the same temperature on both sides of the gap separating the main
and the guard heaters. This prevents lateral heat flow from the main heater and ensures that
heat from the electric heater flows in the direction of the specimen. On the opposite side of
the specimen are additional flat plate heaters (cold plate) that are controlled at a fixed
temperature selected by the operator. For a given heat input to the main heater, the hot plate
assembly rises in temperature until the system reaches equilibrium.
The final hot plate temperature depends on the electrical power input, the thermal
resistance of the specimen and the temperature of the cold plate. The average thermal
conductivity, k, of the specimen is determined from the Fourier heat flow equation as
follow:

W  d 
k= 1 × ∆T 
A … (1)

where W is the electrical power input to the main heater, A is the main heater surface area,
∆T is the temperature difference across the specimen, andd is the specimen thickness.

2.4. Porosity measurements

The porosity value of foamcrete was determined through the Vacuum Saturation
Apparatus [15] for all densities considered for this study. The measurements of foamcrete
porosity were conducted on slices of 68mm diameter cores cut out from the centre of

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100mm cubes. The specimens were dried at 105°C until constant weight had been attained
and were then placed in a desiccator under vacuum for at least 3 hours, after which the
desiccator was filled with de-aired, distilled water. The porosity was calculated using the
following equation:

(Wsat − Wdry )
ε = × 100
(Wsat − Wwat ) … (2)

where ε is the porosity (%), Wsat is the weight in air of saturated sample, Wwat is the weight
in water of saturated sample and Wdry is the weight of oven-dried sample.

2.5. Pore size measurements

In order to observe the effect of pore size on thermal conductivity of foamcrete, it is

necessary to establish the pore size for each density. For the purpose of this study, the
specimen preparation for the measurement of the pore size was slightly different then from
recommended by ASTM C 457. ASTM C 457 specified the size and thickness of the
specimen and length of travel in the linear traverse method (LTM), based on the size of
aggregate. Mixtures from this study, however, do not contain any coarse aggregate but
consist of high amounts of air (foam). To ensure the stability of the air pore walls during
polishing, particularly in weaker specimens (lower density), all the specimens were vacuum-
impregnated with slow-setting epoxy. To ensure consistency in results, all the specimens
were prepared using similar techniques under the same environmental conditions, as
follows.
Foremost, the specimens of 45 x 45 mm size with a minimum thickness of 15 mm
were cut from the centre of two randomly selected 100 mm cubes using a diamond cutter.
The face of the specimen was cut perpendicular to the casting direction. Sized specimens
were saturated in acetone to stop further hydration reaction before drying at 105 °C. To
ensure the stability of the air-pore walls during polishing, the dried and cooled specimens
were vacuum impregnated with slow-setting epoxy. The impregnated specimens were
polished as per ASTM C 457. After polishing and cleaning, the specimens were dried at
room temperature for 1 day. Finally, an effective size 40 x 40 mm was considered for pore
size measurement.
The pore size were measured according to ASTM C 457 under a microscope with a
magnification of 60x on two specimens, prepared as per the procedure described previously,
for each foamcrete specimen. Image analysis system consisted of an optical microscope and
a computer with image analysis software.

3. Results and discussions

The test results of all foamcrete samples are summarized in Table 2. Further discussions are
categorized according to the effect of density, pore size and porosity on thermal conductivity of
foamcrete.

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 Effective thermal conductivity of foamcrete of different densities

TABLE 2: SUMMARY OF TEST RESULTS

Density Thermal conductivity, k Porosity Effective pore size

(kg/m3) (W/mK) (%) (mm)

650 0.23 74 0.72

700 0.24 71 0.69
800 0.26 64 0.63
900 0.28 57 0.59
1000 0.31 51 0.55
1100 0.34 47 0.51
1200 0.39 44 0.48

3.1. Effect of density on thermal conductivity

The results show that the thermal conductivity of all foamcrete samples is positively
proportionate with the density (Fig. 1). For instance, the thermal conductivity for foamcrete
reduced from 0.39 to 0.28W/mK and further reduced to 0.23W/mK for corresponding
densities of 1200, 900 and 650 kg/m3, respectively. The results have confirmed that lower
density transforms to lower thermal conductivity which is comparable to the findings from
other researchers [16, 17]. As will be discussed in Section 3.2, the density of foamcrete is
controlled by its porosity. High density foamcrete will have smaller porosity value
compared to the low density thus this will influence the thermal conductivity of this
material.

0.4
Thermal conductivity (W/mK).

0.35

0.3

0.25

0.2
600 700 800 900 1000 1100 1200 1300
3
Density (kg/m )

Figure 1: Thermal conductivity of foamcrete at different densities

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3.2. Effect of porosity and pore size on thermal conductivity

Fig. 2 shows typical microscopic images of the internal pore structure of the 1000
and 650 kg/m3 density foamcrete. Clearly the pore sizes are not uniform. However, these
two figures do clearly indicate that there is a dominant pore size and that the dominant pore
size is primarily a function of the foamcrete density. The dominant pore size tends to
increase as the foamcrete density reduces due to the higher quantity of foam used (Fig. 3).
For instant, from a microscopic analysis of the internal images of the two densities of
foamcrete, the dominant pore size of the 650 and 1000 kg/m3 density foamcrete has been
determined as 0.72mm and 0.55mm respectively.
The density of foamcrete is governed by the porosity or amount of air content inside
the material. It can be seen from Fig. 4 that lower density of foamcrete indicates larger
porosity value or greater amount of air contained (larger pore size). As a result, thermal
conductivity changes significantly with the porosity of foamcrete because air is the poorest
conductor compared to solid and liquid due to its molecular structure.

(a) 650 kg/m3 density

(b) 1000 kg/m3 density

Figure 2 Pore sizes of foamcrete for 650 and 1000 kg/m3 densities

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 Effective thermal conductivity of foamcrete of different densities

0.8
Effective pore size (%)

0.7

0.6

0.5

0.4
600 700 800 900 1000 1100 1200 1300
3
Density (kg/m )
Figure 3 Effective pore size of foamcrete at different densities

4. Conclusion

An experimental study was conducted to determine the thermal conductivity of foamcrete of

different densities and the influencing factors on the thermal conductivity through the Hot-Guarded
Plate method. Based on test results, the following conclusions may be drawn:
1. Since foamcrete is made by injecting air into a cement based mixture, the density of
foamcrete is directly a function of the air (porosity) inside foamcrete. Therefore the density
of foamcrete plays an important role in determining its thermal conductivity. Lower density
foamcrete indicates greater porosity.
2. Thermal conductivity changes noticeably with the porosity of foamcrete because air is the
poorest conductor in comparison with solid and liquid due to its molecular structure.
3. Lower density foamcrete translates to lower thermal conductivity.
4. The dominant pore size of foamcrete is primarily a function of the foamcrete density where
it tends to increase as the foamcrete density reduces due to the higher quantity of foam.

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgement is made to Universiti Sains Malaysia as a funding body for this research.
The author would also acknowledge the assistance rendered by academic members and staff of the
School of Housing, Building and Planning, Universiti Sains Malaysia.

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