Comparative Analysis of the Thermal Conductivity of Handmade and Mechanical Bricks Used in the Cultural Heritage

Abstract

During interventions to improve the energy efficiency of cultural heritage, it is common to use methodologies that are used for current buildings with different thermal behaviour. For this reason, research has been carried out on the thermal behaviour of old brick walls by carrying out thermal flow tests in the laboratory on brickwork specimens, in order to compare the behaviour of handmade bricks and mechanical bricks from more than a century ago, and to analyse the relationship between the values of thermal conductivity, humidity, density and porosity, as well as to compare these results with those obtained by applying the procedure of the EN-1745 standard. It was concluded that bricks behave thermally differently, depending on the manufacturing process: handmade or mechanical, in both types of brick it was found that the higher the moisture content and density were, the higher the brick’s thermal conductivity value. It has also been concluded that old bricks have thermal conductivity values different from those indicated in EN-1745 as a function of density, and that the ratio detected in these specimens in the dry state and in the wet state does not conform to the processes indicated in the standard. With regard to porosity, it is important to note that the greater the closed porosity, the lower the conductivity. It has been concluded that in order to intervene in cultural heritage buildings, it is necessary to carry out a specific study of the behaviour of the systems with which they were constructed.