Thermo-mechanical characterization of a building material based on Typha Australis

Abstract This paper is a contribution to the valorization of Typha Australis as building material. To do this, the crushed fibers of Typha have been agglomerated using clay as binder. The weight percentage of binder is found to be at least 75% to obtain stable materials. The influence of binder content on mechanical and thermal insulation properties was examined. The mechanical properties were evaluated by using a mechanical press. The measurements of thermal effusivity and thermal conductivity of samples have been performed using the transient hot-plate method. Compression and tensile strengths respectively varies from 0.279 to 0.796 MPa and from 0.340 to 0.969 MPa when the weight percentage of binder range from 77–85%. This values have a strong linear correlation with the weight percentage of binder. The thermal conductivity of dry materials varies from 0.117 to 0.153 W . m − 1 . K − 1 while the thermal effusivity rises from 228.9 to 300.0 J . m − 2 . ° C − 1 . s − 1 2 . The results show that the thermal conductivity and thermal effusivity increases with increasing moisture content of materials.