Thermal properties of the composite material clay/granular cork

•A thermal characterization of clay–granular cork was done.•The asymmetrical hot plate and flash methods was used to characterize the composite clay–granular cork.•A comparison of energy saved and thermal transmittance was done between this research and asdrubali’s research.•The composite obtained is twice more insulating and lighter than clay alone.

Clay is a building material used for construction in a lot of cities in Morocco. For the contrast of the energy efficiency, authors try in this work to improve the thermal properties of clay by combining it with cork, using the asymmetrical hot plate and the flash methods. Also they study the effect of the variation of volume fraction cork on clay. Finally a comparison of the thermal transmittance was done between this research and the study of asdrubali (evaluating in situ thermal transmittance of green buildings masonries-case study) in order to evaluate the energy gain from this composite.