A simple method for building materials thermophysical properties estimation

•We set up a new protocol for construction material’s thermal tests.•Simple, light apparatus used without any control of boundary conditions.•Simultaneous thermal conductivity and volumetric heat capacity estimation.•Good agreement between estimated and reference values.

This article presents a light and easy to use method for simultaneous determination of thermal conductivity and volumetric heat capacity of a construction material without any control of boundary conditions. The material to be characterized is placed between two layers of materials with known thermophysical properties. Thermocouple probes are placed at the different interfaces and record the variations in temperature when the whole multilayer is subjected to stimulation. An inverse method based on a numerical model allows us to simultaneously identify the unknown thermal properties. This method was tested respectively on samples of polyvinyl chloride, expanded polystyrene, plaster and concrete.