Thermomechanical study of ecological hollow bricks based on cork and light concrete

The need for ecological materials became an important strategy to reduce the carbon footprint and the heating loss of the building envelope, and this has become a necessity according to the huge problem that agonizes the world actually. The need to use insulating materials in envelopes prompts the authors to consider developing a new composite material. Cork is considering a friendly Mediterranean insulation for more applications in building thanks to its excellent thermo physical properties. The aim of this study is to develop new ecological composite bricks from light concrete resembling the same form used in construction. Several steps have been conducted for this work; firstly, the characterization of thermal conductivity and thermal resistance, and secondly, the characterization of the compressive strength of bricks has been done according to the variation of the additive compared to the ones of the light concrete bricks. The results show an improvement of the thermal properties of the bricks and a stabilization of the compressive strength of the bricks for the maximum volume fraction of the insulating materials, ensuring good thermomechanical properties of the new bricks produced based on cork according to the standards NF EN 1996-1-1 for using brick in walls. A simulation study at the scale of walls was conducted by the software COMSOL Multiphysics in order to show the impact of the new bricks on the energy efficiency of the building envelope.