Cement and Concrete Research 35 (2005) 1472 – 1479

Concrete blocks for thermal insulation in hot climate

K.S. Al-Jabri*, A.W. Hago, A.S. Al-Nuaimi, A.H. Al-Saidy
Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering, College of Engineering, Sultan Qaboos University,
PO Box 33, Al Khodh, Post Code 123, Oman

Received 20 May 2004; accepted 24 August 2004

Abstract

Heavy use of electric power has become essential for cooling purposes and comfort inside buildings in the Gulf area where outdoor
temperatures in summer can reach up to 60 8C. The use of insulating materials is not popular, despite their long-term financial benefit, due to
the fact that installation of such materials is expensive and requires skilled labour. With the absence of obligatory legislation in most
countries in the region with regard to the use of material with high thermal resistance in construction, development of simply handled
concrete blocks with high thermal insulation properties becomes a necessity. Description of the current systems used in construction to
produce masonry walls with high thermal insulation properties is presented in this paper. Research concerned with the development of
lightweight concrete (LWC) blocks for thermal insulation either by using different hole arrangements or by using indigenous and by-product
materials is reviewed. The research currently conducted by the authors to develop lightweight concrete blocks for thermal insulation is
briefly highlighted.
D 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Temperature; Concrete; Thermal analysis; Lightweight blocks

1. Introduction From an economic and environment conservation point

of view, it is more beneficial to design buildings with high
Sultanate of Oman is situated in the south east corner of thermal insulation characteristics than the practice currently
the Arabian Peninsula. Oman is located in hot and arid followed in the construction of buildings. This will result in
climatic conditions where, in summer, the outdoor temper- long-term benefit of reducing the cost of cooling as well as
ature can reach up to 60 8C with relative humidity of about reducing the pollution of the environment due to heavy use
70% or more. Most buildings in the country are built at of fuel.
present with external walls, known as single skin walls, Use of cavity or double skin walls with insulating
made of concrete solid blocks or hollow-blocks with two materials like chip boards contributes to some extent in
holes. Such walls are characterised by low thermal reducing the high cost of air conditioning in summer.
resistance. The temperature inside such buildings without These materials due to their high cost are limited to
cooling is very high especially in summer. Therefore, heavy government offices and commercial complexes. However,
use of electric power is mandatory for the operation of air in residential buildings, schools and other constructions,
conditions. Where there is air-conditioning, the energy the use of such systems is not recognised and the
consumption is very high. This situation can extend for traditional method of construction of using single skin
over 6 months a year. walls is still dominant.
It is well known that the thermal conductivity of concrete
is much higher than the thermal conductivity of air. By
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +968 515 335; fax: +968 513 416. introducing holes or air-gaps in the concrete block, the
E-mail address: [email protected] (K.S. Al-Jabri). thermal conductivity of concrete block can be reduced. As
0008-8846/$ - see front matter D 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.cemconres.2004.08.018
 K.S. Al-Jabri et al. / Cement and Concrete Research 35 (2005) 1472–1479 1473

the number of air-gaps is increased, the thermal conductivity

is reduced. Therefore, research was focused on the develop-
ment of ordinary concrete blocks with different arrange-
ments of holes, which were characterised by good thermal
resistance [1,2].
The use of lightweight aggregate with low thermal
conductivity in the production of lightweight concrete
(LWC) blocks can provide an alternative cost-effective
solution. Lightweight aggregate can be processed natural
material, processed by-product or unprocessed material.
With large number of voids in the aggregate, lightweight
aggregate concrete possesses a relatively higher thermal
insulating efficiency than the normal concrete. Therefore,
lightweight concrete has superior properties such as
lightness in weight, and good thermal insulation, but
has a disadvantage of low mechanical properties which
makes them suitable only as non-load-bearing walls. In Fig. 1. Cavity wall.
recent years, there has been focus on utilising new local
and by-product materials such as polystyrene beads and
charcoal in the manufacturing of lightweight concrete
blocks. Such materials are considered as waste, which are these walls possess lower thermal insulation character-
discarded without useful reuse. Development of LWC istics than single skin walls, they are costly and more
blocks with high thermal insulation properties using by- labour and time consuming.
products and waste materials as lightweight aggregates However, due to the method of construction of cavity
can have dual benefits, reducing the cost of construction walls, many thermal bridges are introduced [2]. The thermal
and providing an alternative safe way of utilising a waste bridges in external cavity walls will render the thermal
material. The latter can help in conserving of the resistance of the whole enclosure much lower than that
environment. assigned for the cavity wall itself, because much more heat
flows through thermal bridges than through the cavity wall.
Therefore, the best way to obtain lower thermal conductivity
2. Current thermal insulation masonry wall systems in such walls would be by introducing many air-gaps,
cavities, holes, etc. into the wall. The air-gaps seem to be the
At present many types of hollow concrete blocks are most reliable medium for thermal insulation inside the wall
manufactured, but with little attention to the thermal since they do not change the thermo-insulating parameters
resistance of the units. Two types of standard blocks are [3].
manufactured in the Sultanate of Oman for the con-
struction of single skin masonry walls and partitions. The
first type is a 200200400-mm solid block while the 3. Wall-units with improved thermal resistance
second type is a 200200400-mm hollow block with
two holes each measuring 11075200 mm. External The thermal bridges effect on the wall can signifi-
walls constructed from these blocks are characterised by cantly be reduced by introducing as many air-gaps or
high thermal conductivity in which the temperature within holes as possible in the block or wall unit which leads to
buildings without cooling is very high especially in the a great improvement in the thermal resistance of masonry
summer. walls. Pierzchlewicz [2] developed 13 concrete wall-units
However, in order to reduce the energy consumption (i.e. blocks) with different hole configurations and
during summer, cavity and double skin walls should be investigated the thermal properties and compressive
used. Construction of cavity walls requires the erection of strength of these blocks. Fig. 2 shows some of the
two thin walls separated by an air-gap and braced with investigated wall-units.
metal ties as shown in Fig. 1 [2]. For durability Two kinds of concrete wall-unit were produced, one
considerations, ties are made of stainless steel, which with aligned holes while the other with staggered holes.
increases the cost. Double skin walls are similar to cavity The thicknesses of the shells of the hollow block and the
walls but polystyrene or a thermal insulation board is widths of the holes were assumed to be 30, 35 and 40
inserted between the two walls, which fills the air-gap. mm. The basic idea behind using staggered holes was to
The introduction of the air-gap or the thermal board attain elongation of the heat flow path through the wall.
reduces the heat transfer through the wall which improves The direct heat flow through vertical transverse joints was
the thermal resistance of the wall. Despite the fact that avoided by cancelling vertical joints fully filled with
1474 K.S. Al-Jabri et al. / Cement and Concrete Research 35 (2005) 1472–1479

Fig. 2. Some types of hollow blocks developed by Pierzchlewicz [1,2].

mortar and introducing pockets filled with mortar as walls where it is necessary to build two leaves of wall
shown in Fig. 3. This method creates air contained in the and tie them properly. Also the proposed wall-units were
holes which does not affect its thermal parameters in the handy and easy to lay in the masonry walls. Thermal
course of time. The construction of walls made of hollow conductivity study conducted on these wall-units indicated
blocks is much easier than the construction of cavity that the thermal resistance of the wall-units with staggered
holes was 1.5 to 2.6 times higher than those made of
hollow blocks with aligned holes and 2.1 to 3.4 times
higher than those made of solid blocks, assuming the
walls were of the same thickness.
Blocks made of staggered holes performed better, having
thermal conductivity between 0.57–0.68 W/mK compared
with blocks made of aligned holes in which the thermal
conductivity was between 0.87 and 0.92 W/mK. Solid
blocks were found to have the highest thermal conductivity
of 1.2 W/mK.
Recently, a new interlocking concrete block was
developed by Abdelhamid [4] for residential construction
in hot desert climate. The main criteria used to develop
the new system were thermal and structural efficiency,
Fig. 3. Detail of vertical joint with mortar pockets. minimum quality control on the job site and speed of
 K.S. Al-Jabri et al. / Cement and Concrete Research 35 (2005) 1472–1479 1475

construction using unskilled labour. The block had three (b) It provides high thermal insulation for buildings.
chambers: an outer chamber to accommodate insulation, a (c) It enhances the inherent fire resistance of buildings.
middle chamber to accommodate reinforcing steel and an
inner chamber to accommodate electrical conduits and It is well known that the thermal behaviour of
piping. The block is 390 mm long by 190 mm high by concrete is related to its density. By lowering the
300 mm thick. The faceshell thickness is 30 mm and the density of concrete, a lower thermal conductivity can
web thickness is 30 mm. The thickness of the inner and be achieved. Therefore, by creating air-bubble or voids
outer chambers is 40 mm whereas the thickness of the in the concrete, lightweight concrete with low thermal
middle chamber is 100 mm. Tongue and groove concept conductivity can be produced. Lightweight aggregates are
was used for interlocking of the blocks in the vertical the paramount factor in the production of LWC. These
plane. There was no interlocking in the horizontal plane are broadly classified into three types: natural materials
of the block. Staggering was used to provide continuity. (pumice, diatomite, expanded clay or expanded shale,
Wall assemblies made of the proposed concrete block etc.), processed by-products (foamed slag, sintered
were tested for thermal response from which it was found pulverised fuel ash) or un-processed materials. The
that the thermal conductivity of the wall was 0.375 W/m2 selection of LWC is controlled by the properties required
8C. This value was found to satisfy the target thermal in the finished product: density, cost, strength, and
design requirements for comfortable interior temperature thermal conductivity. Lightweight aggregates possess
without the need for mechanical air-conditioning. As a high void ratio due to their porous nature which results
result of the thermal insulation efficiency of the tested in good thermal insulation properties when mixed in
wall, a prototype one-storey building was constructed concrete.
consisting of two bed rooms, a family room, a dinning Research in recent years has been focused on the
room, a kitchen and two bath rooms with an inner open potential uses of waste and by-product materials on the
court. Vaults and domes were chosen for the roof to manufacturing LWC with high thermal insulation proper-
minimise direct exposure to sun light. Small openings in ties. Polystyrene beads, vermiculite and leca are some of
the vaults and domes were provided to obtain effective the by-product materials which are used as lightweight
ventilation and air exchange. The new insulated block aggregates in the production of LWC blocks. These
was used to build the exterior walls to provide targeted materials are characterised by very low thermal conduc-
thermal efficiency while interior walls were built using tivity. Typical values of physical properties of some
conventional concrete masonry blocks. Actual thermal materials are shown in Table 1 [5]. In some cases, other
measurements of the prototype building affirm the thermal materials such as aluminium powder are added to the mix
efficiency of the proposed building system. The indoor in small proportions in order to generate air bubbles in
temperature achieved using the proposed insulated inter- aerated concrete. Finding a useful and cost-effective
locking concrete masonry wall system was around 25 8C utilisation of such materials can help in protecting the
which is within the identified comfort zone (25–35 8C)
without the need of mechanical air-conditioning. The
results obtained clearly demonstrated the effectiveness of
the proposed system in maintaining comfortable indoor Table 1
temperature. Typical physical properties of some lightweight aggregates used in LWC
(1) Leca
Bulk density for size: up to 4 mm 560 kg/m3
4. Lightweight concrete blocks with high thermal 4–8 mm 415 kg/m3
8–12 mm 305 kg/m3
insulation properties Voids ratio for size: up to 4 mm 44%
4–8 mm 48%
Lightweight concrete (LWC) refers to any concrete 8–12 mm 45%
produced with density of less than 2000 kg/m3. According
to the classification given by RILEM/CEB [5], LWC for (2) Polystyrene foam
Bulk density 36 kg/m3
structural purposes is defined as concrete with density range Water adsorption 0.2% by volume
of 1600–2000 kg/m3 and strength grade not less than 15 Thermal conductivity 0.03 W/m
MPa. LWC used for insulation purposes may provide Coefficient of expansion 710 6
strength as low as 0.5 MPa and a density of less than
1450 kg/m3. The main advantages of LWC over normal- (3) Vermiculite
Bulk density 64 to 160 kg/m3
weight concrete are the following: Shape accordion-shaped granule
Colour light to dark brown
(a) It provides reduced dead load of structure, which can pH (in water) 6 to 9
lead to a reduction in the foundation size and in the Fusion point 1200 to 1320 8C
supporting column size as well. Thermal conductivity 0 to 0.06 W/m
1476 K.S. Al-Jabri et al. / Cement and Concrete Research 35 (2005) 1472–1479

environment as well as reducing the cost of construction. was more effective than SF in decreasing the thermal
For instance, expanded polystyrene beads are often used conductivity.
as packing material. This leads to a large amount of waste The mechanical, physical, acoustic and thermal proper-
material which is not biodegradable. This material could ties of lightweight concrete made from leca, polystyrene
be granulated and used as lightweight aggregate for foam and vermiculite as aggregates were investigated by
concrete. Although much work has been done on the Abdel-Reheem et al. [5]. Aerated concrete was also
effect of using lightweight aggregates on the mechanical produced and tested with aluminium powder which was
properties of concrete, very little research has been done used to generate air bubbles in the aerated concrete.
on thermal conductivity. Thirteen mixes with different proportions of leca, polystyr-
Park and Chisholm [6] investigated the thermal ene foam and vermiculite were prepared. Concrete block
conductivity of polystyrene aggregate concrete with specimens with 100100 mm and thickness 50, 100, and
densities of 600, 800 and 1000 kg/m3. Investigations 150 mm were used for measuring the thermal conductivity.
were also made on mixes containing fly ash, at same A casting-steel box 50033315-mm thickness was used
densities, to study its effect on the workability, and other for measuring the thermal properties. The box walls were
properties of the mixes. Results indicated that thermal insulated from inside by 100-mm thermo-bricks. A heating
conductivities of 0.133, 0.217 and 0.3 W/m 8C were coil was connected inside the box in front of the test
achieved for mixes with densities of 600, 800 and 1000 specimen and was connected with an electric current source
kg/m3, respectively. Also results showed that addition of and a switch. Two thermocouples were connected on two
fly ash had negligible influence on thermal conductivity. parallel faces of the concrete test block. The test specimen
Thermal conductivity of concrete was calculated empiri- was exposed to a given high temperature at one face, while
cally based on Arnold chart [7]. the temperature at the other face was recorded at different
The effect of charcoal powder addition on the thermal times.
conductivity of lightweight concrete was studied by Results indicated that the percentage of heat transmission
Resheidat et al. [8]. The charcoal powder was added for the mixes prepared with ordinary gravel, leca, poly-
as partial substitute of the Portland pozzolanic cement in styrene foam, vermiculite and aluminium powder were
the concrete mix. The ratio of charcoal powder to the 15.3%, 14.2%, 17.7%, 12.9%, and 10.4%, respectively,
cement ranged from 2.5% to 10%. The water-to-cement which reflects the superiority of aerated concrete in resisting
ratio was 0.5. Concrete specimens were subjected to high temperature.
accelerated curing and later to heat treatment at 300 8C
for different heating times to create porous concrete.
Results showed that the addition of charcoal powder 5. Current research on development of lightweight
reduces the thermal conductivity of concrete. This concrete blocks with high thermal insulation properties
reduction was more significant at percentages higher
than 2.5% charcoal contents. Thermal conductivity An on-going research project investigating the possibility
decreased as the heating time was increased for different of developing lightweight concrete blocks which can be
percentage of charcoal. used for cladding and serve the purpose of thermal
Demirboğa and Gql [9] studied the effect of expanded insulation was started by the authors [10,11]. The blocks
perlite aggregate, silica fume and fly ash on the thermal were produced from two indigenous materials: vermiculite
conductivity of lightweight concrete. Both expanded (VerBlock) and polystyrene beads (PolyBlock1) which were
perlite (EPA) and pumice aggregates (PA) were used in used as lightweight aggregates with different proportions in
the manufacturing of lightweight concrete samples. To the mix. The mechanical and thermal properties of the two
determine the effect of silica fume (SF) and class C fly types of blocks were compared with blocks manufactured
ash (FA) on the thermal conductivity of lightweight commercially as thermal insulation blocks (PolyBlock2) and
aggregate concrete, SF and FA were added as replacement ordinary concrete blocks. Fig. 4 shows the different types of
for cement by decreasing the cement weights in the ratios blocks while Fig. 5 shows different tests conducted to
of 10%, 20% and 30% by weight. The highest thermal determine the thermal and mechanical properties of the
conductivity of 0.3178 W/mK was observed with samples investigated blocks.
containing only PA and plain concrete. It decreased with In order to determine the thermal conductivity of the
the increase of SF and FA as replacement for cement. blocks, a guarded hot box was constructed in accordance
The lowest value of thermal conductivity, which is with ASTM C236-89 [12]. The box was constructed from
0.1472 W/mK, was obtained with the samples prepared plywood plates and was insulated from inside with 100-
with EPA replacement of PA and 70% cement+30% FA mm-thick polystyrene panels (Fig. 5c). The specimen was
replacement of cement. Use of EPA in place of PA located on the sixth side of the box. An electric heater
induced a decrease of 43.5% in thermal conductivity of with a fan was used to heat the box from inside. Two
concrete. Also results showed that both SF and FA had a thermocouples were stuck on the inside and outside of
decreasing effect on thermal conductivity although FA each face of the box. A data logger was used for the
 K.S. Al-Jabri et al. / Cement and Concrete Research 35 (2005) 1472–1479 1477

Table 2
Properties of different types of blocks used for thermal insulation
Block type Weight Gross Block Column K
(kg) density, strength strength (W/m8C)
(kg/m3) (N/mm2) (N/mm2)
Ordinary 19.08 1193 5–15 5.48 1.60
VerBlock 18.68 1168 2.2 – 0.76
PolyBlock1 12.77 798 3.3 2.24 0.626
PolyBlock2 22.68 1418 10.2 7.56 0.616

Fig. 4. Different types of blocks. compressive strength satisfying the requirement for non-
load bearing masonry.
The efficiency of the manufactured blocks is currently
monitoring of the temperature measured by the thermo- under investigation by building three rooms in order to
couples. Steady state conditions were reached in about 10 monitor the thermal variation during summer. One room
h. The interior of the box was kept at about 52 8C. The was constructed using ordinary blocks while the two
Fourier heat conduction equation was used to calculate others using PolyBlock1 and PolyBlock2. Heat trans-
the thermal resistance of all sides of the box and the heat ferred through the walls of the rooms is continuously
flux through the sides. monitored by thermocouples stuck on the outer and inner
By comparing three types of concrete blocks for thermal sides of the walls and connected to a data logger. The
insulation, it was found that polystyrene beads was a better outside atmospheric temperature and the inside room
material to be used as lightweight aggregate for making temperature are also recorded. Sample results are shown
blocks. Blocks-type PolyBlock1 (hollow) was found to be in Fig. 6. The room built with developed blocks
superior to PolyBlock2 (solid) in terms of weight, and had (Polyblock1) gave the lowest inside temperature com-
comparable thermal conductivity, K from 0.626 to 0.616 W/ pared with the other two rooms. These are preliminary
m8C as shown in Table 2. In addition, it provided reasonable results, and recording will continue during the whole of

(a) Compressive strength test

(b) Masonry column test

(c) Thermal conductivity test

Fig. 5. Different tests conducted on the blocks.
1478 K.S. Al-Jabri et al. / Cement and Concrete Research 35 (2005) 1472–1479

Fig. 6. Temperature inside rooms made from different blocks.

the summer season where temperature can reach more References

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