Thermal characteristics of structural lightweight concrete

Abstract

A higher cooling load is required with an increasing room temperature that resulted from the high thermal conductivity and low time lag of conventional construction materials [1] . Such a high cooling load increases the carbon footprint from the energy consumption during building performance. The condition can be worsened with the urban heat island phenomenon, as the cooling load prolongs to night time for maintaining indoor thermal comfort. Hence, structural lightweight concrete (SLC) serves as an alternative in concrete structures for reducing the carbon footprint during building performance. Countries with tropical climates have the highest amount of energy consumption for cooling loads. SLC may significantly reduce the cooling loads within the structures’ service life. The indoor environment is sealed from outside weathering with building form in achieving human thermal comfort. Apart from roofing, the wall is the major component in building form with predominant exposure to heat transfer. Heat transfer mechanism through conduction, convection and radiation increases indoor temperature and requires higher energy for reducing the temperature. Roofing and wall components contented higher areas for heat transfer mechanism. A lightweight concrete block and SLC comprising load-bearing members and a non-bearing wall is a sustainable solution for the concrete construction industry. The outdoor wall experiences different temperature patterns throughout the day as a result of varying thermal loads, such as solar radiation and infrared exchange between the wall and its surroundings that