Improving environmental sustainability of concrete products: Investigation on MWC thermal and mechanical properties

This research focuses on the possibility of constituting a more sustainable lightweight concrete, Mineralized Wood Concrete (MWC), substituting natural aggregates with wastes from woodworking activities. Exploiting this type of aggregates, a triple purpose has been achieved: preservation of natural raw materials, reuse of wastes and energy saving. Furthermore, the use of wood aggregates is a way to try to develop a sustainable concrete characterized by high thermal inertia, high thermal resistance and low weight.In this paper, effects of the addition of wood aggregates on mechanical and thermal properties of concrete are studied. Mechanical performances have been investigated with compressive strength tests, while a one-dimensional heat flow model has been used to predict the thermal conductivity of MWC.The use of MWC can be associated with the idea of a different typology of relatively heavy building envelope: this union could competitively answer to the demand of well-insulated building envelope and concurrently characterized by high thermal mass. From this union, a series of other values can be derived: low weight, environmentally friendly, easily industrialized and easy on-site casting. Consequently, applications of wood concrete in building constructions may be an interesting solution in order to improve sustainability and building energy efficiency.