Measurement of thermal properties of brick materials based on clay mixtures

•Transient, steady state hot-plate and flash methods used for clay thermal properties.•A comparative study based on the different experimental results is performed.•The specific heat, thermal conductivity and diffusivity measurements are discussed.•Numerical simulations of 3D-transient heat conduction conducted for validations.

Thermal properties of building materials such as clay used in construction are measured using transient and steady state hot-plate and flash methods. The experimental methods are applied to measure the thermal properties of clay samples. The estimation of these thermal characteristics is based on a one dimensional model. A tridimensional model of the heat transfer in the system is considered to determine the validity conditions of the one dimensional model used to represent the center temperature. The use of a brick as a thermal insulating material requires prior knowledge of all its thermal properties. For that purpose, we have conducted an experimental study in order to characterize the thermal properties of brick samples, coming from the Moroccan Slaoui’s factory. The thermal diffusivity “a”, specific heat “c” and thermal conductivity “λ” of this clay are experimentally obtained and their values are reported for design purposes. Finally, a comparative study based on different experimental methods is performed and the measurements are compared. The error estimations are found less than 3%.