Experimental Studies on the Thermal and Moisture Properties of Rammed Earth Used in Adobe Buildings in China

Yan, Zengfeng; Lam, Joseph C.; Liu, Jiaping

doi:10.3763/asre.2005.4808

Cited by 16 publications

(11 citation statements)

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“…While adobe wall thickness is typically dictated by structural rather than thermal needs, the resulting 30-60 cm (12-24 in.) constructions greatly stabilize interior temperatures in both summer and winter [59,71,72,75].…”

Section: Adobementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thermal conductivity therefore generally increases with material density: gases have the lowest values, insulation values are similarly low, liquids are intermediate, and solids are high, with electrically-conductive solids highest (Table 1, Figure 3). [52]; c [54,55]; d [55]; e [55,56]; f [7,39,57]; g [58][59][60][61]; h [62]; i [18,[63][64][65][66]. Table 1 and used in thermal storage mass simulations; see Table 1 for sources.…”

Section: Thermal Conductivitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Earth is an ancient building material, still common in arid and semi-arid lands where other construction materials are scarce or expensive: an estimated 2 billion people currently live in earth homes, notably in Africa, India, China, Central and South America, and Australia [40,59,71,72]. Brick, or fired earth, is similarly widespread in building construction [73]; all three have thermal properties highly advantageous for thermal storage.…”

Section: Adobe Rammed Earth and Brickmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Rocks, Clays, Water, and Salts: Highly Durable, Infinitely Rechargeable, Eminently Controllable Thermal Batteries for Buildings

Rempel

2013

Geosciences

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Materials that store the energy of warm days, to return that heat during cool nights, have been fundamental to vernacular building since ancient times. Although building with thermally rechargeable materials became a niche pursuit with the advent of fossil fuel-based heating and cooling, energy and climate change concerns have sparked new enthusiasm for these substances of high heat capacity and moderate thermal conductivity: stone, adobe, rammed earth, brick, water, concrete, and more recently, phase-change materials. While broadly similar, these substances absorb and release heat in unique patterns characteristic of their mineralogies, densities, fluidities, emissivities, and latent heats of fusion. Current architectural practice, however, shows little awareness of these differences and the resulting potential to match materials to desired thermal performance. This investigation explores that potential, illustrating the correspondence between physical parameters and thermal storage-and-release patterns in direct-, indirect-, and isolated-gain passive solar configurations. Focusing on heating applications, results demonstrate the superiority of water walls for daytime warmth, the tunability of granite and concrete for evening warmth, and the exceptional ability of phase-change materials to sustain near-constant heat delivery throughout the night.

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Section: Adobementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Thermal Conductivitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Adobe Rammed Earth and Brickmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Rocks, Clays, Water, and Salts: Highly Durable, Infinitely Rechargeable, Eminently Controllable Thermal Batteries for Buildings

Rempel

2013

Geosciences

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“…Values for the physical constants C w and L are given in Table 1. Material-specific constitutive parameters (see Table 2, [43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56]) were assigned in two different ways: (1) for the soils considered in Section 3.1, we assigned 12 specific textures and followed the published correlations described further below in Section 2.3.1 to obtain moisture content W(φ), hydraulic conductivity K(W), and thermal conductivity k(W), with all other controlling parameters either derived in part from these or taken entirely from representative values in the published literature;…”

Section: Procedures Followed For Assigning Controlling Parametersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intrinsic Evaporative Cooling by Hygroscopic Earth Materials

Rempel

2016

Geosciences

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The phase change of water from liquid to vapor is one of the most energy-intensive physical processes in nature, giving it immense potential for cooling. Diverse evaporative cooling strategies have resulted worldwide, including roof ponds and sprinklers, courtyard fountains, wind catchers with qanats, irrigated green roofs, and fan-assisted evaporative coolers. These methods all require water in bulk liquid form. The evaporation of moisture that has been sorbed from the atmosphere by hygroscopic materials is equally energy-intensive, however, yet has not been examined for its cooling potential. In arid and semi-arid climates, hygroscopic earth buildings occur widely and are known to maintain comfortable indoor temperatures, but evaporation of moisture from their walls and roofs has been regarded as unimportant since water scarcity limits irrigation and rainfall; instead, their cool interiors are attributed to well-established mass effects in delaying the transmission of sensible gains. Here, we investigate the cooling accomplished by daily cycles of moisture sorption and evaporation which, requiring only ambient humidity, we designate as "intrinsic" evaporative cooling. Connecting recent soil science to heat and moisture transport studies in building materials, we use soils, adobe, cob, unfired earth bricks, rammed earth, and limestone to reveal the effects of numerous parameters (temperature and relative humidity, material orientation, thickness, moisture retention properties, vapor diffusion resistance, and liquid transport properties) on the magnitude of intrinsic evaporative cooling and the stabilization of indoor relative humidity. We further synthesize these effects into concrete design guidance. Together, these results show that earth buildings in diverse climates have significant potential to cool themselves evaporatively through sorption of moisture from humid night air and evaporation during the following day's heat. This finding challenges the perception of limited evaporative cooling resources in arid climates and greatly expands the applicability of evaporative cooling in contemporary buildings to water-stressed regions.

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“…Because of this behaviour, it is currently difficult for house designs using only RE walls to satisfy the Deemed-to-Satisfy provisions of the Building Code of Australia within the Australian National Construction Code (NCC) [12], which require a minimum R-value for external walls of 2.8m²K/W for Class 1 buildings (detached residential) for all climatic zones in Australia except the Alpine zone, where the minimum requirement is 3.8m²K/W. According to previous studies [13][14][15][16], a typical 300mm thick RE wall has an R-Value of only 0.27-0.70m 2 K/W. The NCC has an alternative requirement for external walls with a surface density greater than 220kg/m 2 , which states that an equivalent wall insulation with an R-Value of 0.5 to 1.0m²K/W (depending on other design parameters) shall be added.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design optimization of insulated cavity rammed earth walls for houses in Australia

Dong

Soebarto

Griffith

2015

Energy and Buildings

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Experimental Studies on the Thermal and Moisture Properties of Rammed Earth Used in Adobe Buildings in China

Cited by 16 publications

References 1 publication

Rocks, Clays, Water, and Salts: Highly Durable, Infinitely Rechargeable, Eminently Controllable Thermal Batteries for Buildings

Rocks, Clays, Water, and Salts: Highly Durable, Infinitely Rechargeable, Eminently Controllable Thermal Batteries for Buildings

Intrinsic Evaporative Cooling by Hygroscopic Earth Materials

Design optimization of insulated cavity rammed earth walls for houses in Australia

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