Validation of a 3D pore scale prediction model for the thermal conductivity of porous building materials

The performance of a recently developed numerical model for the prediction of the thermal conductivity of porous building materials is investigated using a sintered glass filter material. A combination of micro-CT scanning and pore volume distribution measurements is used to characterize the material's microstructure. Thermal simulations are performed on the obtained 3D images of the microstructure and are compared with experimental measurements of the thermal conductivity. Both dry and water saturated samples are used, enlarging the validation set and the range of thermal conductivities. The model shows good agreement with the experiments. Future improvements are discussed.