Thermal Inertia Properties of Autoclaved Aerated Concrete

Abstract

Autoclaved aerated concrete (AAC) is a lightweight, porous concrete with advanced thermal properties. AAC is unique among construction materials in combining excellent thermal resistance and thermal inertia. Generally, low-density construction materials do not provide good thermal inertia, while heavier ones commonly have poor thermal resistance. Five different 10.2 cm (4 in.) AAC samples made from U.S. electric utility fly ash as the silica source, along with three 10.2 cm (4 in.) conventional building material specimens, were tested for thermal inertia properties. Three primary issues addressed by these experiments were: (1) to develop and compare AAC thermal inertia to conventional building materials; (2) to document differences in thermal inertia characteristics of the AAC blocks produced by the various utilities; and (3) to determine if a periodic heat flow model using the thermal inertia approach adequately predicts the observed thermal inertia parameters of a material. A theoretical periodic heat flow model in the literature for thermal inertia did an adequate job of predicting the observed thermal inertia parameters for the AAC and conventional construction samples.