Analytical and experimental investigations on the heat transfer properties of light concrete

It is well known that the thermal performance of some insulating and building materials is related to the actual operating conditions because the thermal conductivity of such materials is highly dependent on the moisture content. Since the thermal conductivity of liquid water is about 25 times greater than that of air, it is quite easy to understand how even small variations of the moisture content can have a significant impact on thermal performance. For this reason it is important to find a correlation between the moisture content in a specimen and its thermal conductivity. The purpose of this paper is to investigate both experimentally and theoretically the moisture contribution during the measurement of the heat transfer properties in light concrete slabs (autoclaved concrete and concrete lighted with polystyrene pearls) and to correlate its thermal transmissivity with the moisture content.