Experimental study of thermal properties of a new ecological building material based on peanut shells and plaster

- The ecological composite materials thermal performance can contribute to improve the thermal comfort in constructions.
- The energy saving by using the new material based on peanut shells and plaster.
- Transient, steady state hot-plate, flash methods and DSC used for characterization of the thermal properties of material.
- A comparative study based on the different experimental results is performed.
- The specific heat, thermal conductivity and diffusivity measurements are discussed.

The aim of the present work was to investigate the thermal properties of a new building material consisting of a mixture of plaster and peanut shells for use as insulating materials in building. The properties are commonly measured by using the steady state asymmetric hot plate method, the asymmetrical transient hot plate method and the flash method. The experimental study that we have conducted, enabled us to determine the conductivity, the effusivity and the thermal diffusivity of our material. The influence of the size and the mass fraction of the peanut shell shards on thermophysical properties of tested material, was investigated. Our experimental data show a good efficiency and a significant decrease in the thermal conductivity of material with peanut shell shards compared to simple plaster material. The purpose is to obtain ecological composite materials with better thermal performance, which can contribute to improve the thermal comfort in constructions in Morocco. The results show that the density of the new material was not substantially influenced by the size of the peanut shell shards. However, the thermal conductivity and diffusivity decrease from 0.3 Wm−1 K−1 and 3.75 × 10−7 m2 s−1 to 0.14 Wm−1 K−1 and 2.11 × 10−7m2 s−1, respectively, according to the variation of the mass fraction of peanut from 0 to20%.