Evaluating the thermal transmittance of various building

materials with insulating materials

V. Arivumani1, Vijayalaxmi Iyer2 and R. Velraj3

1
Department of Architecture, School of Planning and Architecture, Anna University, Chennai, India
2
Department of Architecture, School of Planning and Architecture, Vijayawada, India
3
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Anna University, Chennai, India
ar.arivu12@gmail.com

Abstract: Keeping indoor temperature condition lower than outdoor condition is recommended in hot
climate. Primarily ventilated buildings with low thermal mass should be employed. The indoor maximum
can be close to the outdoor maximum and normally even higher due to internal heat gains. Heat gain
through the walls plays a vital role in maintaining thermal comfort inside the building envelope.
Selection of materials for wall components is very important for the achievement of good thermal
comfort. In this paper, assessment of thermal transmittance of various building materials such as burnt
brick, concrete, cellular concrete and timber which are widely used in the construction sector, is made
along with some insulating materials that include expanded polystyrene, foam concrete, rockwool,
glasswool and soft board of varying thickness. Numerical calculation of thermal transmittance of these
materials is made based on density, thermal conductivity and specific heat capacity etc., which
represent the rate of transfer of heat (in Watts) through one square meter of a structure divided by the
difference in temperature across the structure. The results will be very useful for architects and
practising engineers.

Keywords: Thermal conductivity; Specific heat capacity; Thermal transmittance; Building wall materials.

1. Introduction
Ventilated buildings with low thermal mass are normally employed in hot and humid climate.
Although examples of light weight constructions are broadly seen in vernacular architecture in hot
humid regions, through permanent, daytime cross ventilation, it is not possible to lower the indoor
temperature below the outdoor one. In such situations, the indoor maximum is close to the outdoor
maximum and sometimes even higher due to internal heat gains. The heat gain through the walls plays a
vital role in maintaining the thermal comfort inside the building envelope. Selection of materials for wall
components is very important to ensure achievement of good thermal comfort. Finding of studies
reported in literature on the various aspects of insulating building materials are presented in this
section.
Schiavoni et.al (2016) and Adithiya et.al (2017) made a thorough study of the various insulation
materials for energy efficiency in buildings. They refer to the life cycle analysis and potential emission

Revisiting the Role of Architecture for 'Surviving’ Development. 53rd International Conference of the
Architectural Science Association 2019, Avlokita Agrawal and Rajat Gupta (eds), pp. 743–752. ©
2019 and published by the Architectural Science Association (ANZAScA).
744 V. Arivumani, V. Iyer & R. Velraj

reduction through use of appropriate insulation materials. Energy saving analysis in walls through
thermal insulation system was studied by Subhash Mishra et al. (2012). They evaluated insulation
thickness and energy savings using Life-cycle cost analysis over a life time of 10 years of the building.
They also determined the optimum insulation thickness for different wall types that include brick,
concrete and stone which are used in building construction in India. Naveen Tiwari et al. (2013) studied
the measurements and analysis of thermal conductivity of insulating material. They carried out the
measurement of thermal conductivity of Alumina (Porous- standard reference sample supplied by M/S
Anter corporation, USA) and ceramic based porous insulating materials (CBPIM) in the temperature
range of 50°C to 1100°C on M/S Anter Unitherm model 3141 apparatus(Hot Wire Thermal Conductivity
Measuring System) as per ASTM C-1113. The effect of increasing temperature on thermal conductivity
of Alumina and CBPIM was also analysed.
Gesa et al. (2014) investigated the thermal insulation properties of selected ceiling materials used in
Makurdi Metropolis (Benue State-Nigeria). In their investigation, a study of the thermal insulation
properties of three selected materials namely: Plaster of Paris (P.O.P), Plywood and Isorel (Masonite)
used as ceiling boards in Makurdi, Benue state-Nigeria was made. They concluded that the best
insulation material for use in a tropical city like Makurdi was P.O.P. However, from the economic point
of view, the choice of an insulating material with a lower thermal conductivity and more affordability to
average number of inhabitants was considering housing construction in a densely populated city like
Makurdi (a city in Nigeria, Africa). Hence Plywood was recommended for the lower or middleclass
people who cannot cope up with the exorbitant cost of P.O.P since it is less expensive with better
insulation property than Isorel (Masonite). Nikos Sakkaset.al (2015) studied non-Intrusive U value
metering. Their objective was to introduce an easily deployable, plug and play, contact-less technology,
with ability to provide a reasonable approximation of the building element U value and its variations
with external air speed and as an accurate estimation of the U value change in the case of a shell (wall or
window) retrofit. They have presented a compact and non-intrusive technology for U value metering.
Soler et.al (2018) examined the thermal transmittance of an external building wall with the objective
of improving the energy efficiency of the building through the integer linear programming approach.
They felt that the thermal transmittance should abide by the current legislation with the limitations of
budget, thickness, time limit, workforce, number of layers and the availability of materials. Optimization
was achieved on a consideration of more than 670,000 possible combinations of materials and other
parameters mentioned above. The study concluded that an adequate selection of materials, a small
variation in the thickness of the wall or a small increase in the budget, among other factors, can help a
considerable reduction in the thermal transmittance of the wall and therefore improve the energy
efficiency of the building throughout its life. Hammed et.al (2018) performed a study directed to capture
of a trade-off between embodied carbon U-value by presenting a mathematical model using a mixed
integer programming approach for designing load bearing walls in commercial and residential buildings.
The proposed model was tested on a practical case example applicable in Australia and UK involving a
load bearing wall. Their model optimized the thickness of each layer of the wall for getting an optimum
solution in terms of embodied carbon and U-value.
Zach et al. (2013) took up the subject of the development of thermal insulation plasters for insulating
and sanitation of building constructions. Their work was oriented toward the development of ultra-light
thermal insulation plasters on a silicate base, which could be due to high porosity and good stability at
elevated humidity used for applications with higher moisture load too. High open porosity and low
volume weight helped the developed materials getting a significant potential, without any additional
treatment, in the field of sanitation and thermal insulation of building structures in areas where
 Evaluating the thermal transmittance of various building materials with insulating materials 745

constructions had lower moisture level. Sagar kumar Shah et al. (2013) made a study of thermal
insulating materials and costing of the economic thickness of insulation. This paper dealt “How to select
insulation material and on what basis a decision is made concerning material selection and costs”. It
provided a brief write-up about major insulation materials, criteria for material selection, economic
selection, properties, applications, economic thickness of insulation, location, design life, case study and
conclusion. The most important characteristics of any insulation material include a low thermal
conductivity, low tendency toward absorbing water and of course, inexpensive feature of the material.
In their paper, various building materials that are widely used in the construction sector were taken
into account along with some insulating materials. Numerical evaluation of the thermal transmittance of
these materials was made representing the rate of transfer of heat (in Watts) through one square metre
of a structure divided by the difference in temperature across the structure (expressed in Watts per
metre square Kelvin or W/m2K.

2. Material Selection

Various building and insulating materials that are widely used in construction industry sector are
considered in the present study.Details of the standard thicknesses of the commercially available
building wall and insulation materials are shown in the table 1 below.

Table 1: Various building and insulating materials and their thickness.

Type of materials Standard thickness of Exterior Wall materials
Building Materials Minimum Exterior wall Maximum Exterior wall
Thickness Thickness
1. Burnt Brick 114.3 mm 228.6 mm
2. Concrete 101.6 mm 203.2 mm
3. Cellular Concrete 100.0 mm 200.0 mm

Insulating Materials Minimum Around 100 Maximum

Thickness mm Thickness Thickness
1. Expanded Polystyrene 41.0 mm 100.0 mm 100.0 mm
2. Foam Concrete 101.6 mm 101.6 mm -
3. Rock Wool 50.0 mm 110.0 mm 170.0 mm
4. Glass Wool 90.0 mm 115.0 mm 140.0 mm
5. Soft Board 25.0 mm 100.0 mm 100.0 mm
746 V. Arivumani, V. Iyer & R. Velraj

The thermal properties of these building walls and the insulating materials used in the present
work are shown in the table 2 as follows:

Table 2: Thermal properties of building and insulating materials.

Type of Materials Density Thermal Specific Heat
3
(kg/m ) Conductivity W/mk Capacity kJ/kgK

Building Materials

1. Burnt Brick 1.82 0.81 0.88

2. Concrete 2.41 1.74 0.88

3. Cellular Concrete 0.70 0.18 1.05

4. Timber 0.48 0.07 1.68

Insulating Materials

1.Expanded 16 0.038 1.34

Polystyrene

2. Foam Concrete 320 0.070 0.92

3. Rock Wool 92 0.047 0.84

4. Glass Wool 69 0.043 0.92

5. Soft Board 320 0.066 1.30

3. Evaluation of Thermal Transmittance

Thermal Transmittance values for the various materials considered in this study are calculated on
the basis of SP 41(1987) – referred to in the Handbook on functional requirements of buildings, in
various combinations of building and insulating materials and comparison between them have been
made. The procedure for calculating the thermal transmittance values are as follows:

Step 1: Calculate the thermal resistance R of each uniform building material which constitutes the
building unit as shown in ……………….
R = L/k (1)
Where,
L - Thickness of material in meter
k - Thermal Conductivity in W/mK
 Evaluating the thermal transmittance of various building materials with insulating materials 747

Step 2: Find the total thermal resistance RT as follows:

RT = 1/fo + 1/fi + R1 + R2 +……... (2)

Where,
fo- Outside surface film coefficient
fi - Inside surface film coefficient
R1, R2 -Thermal resistance of different materials.

Note: The following values of surface heat transfer coefficient have been taken for the
computation of various parameters:

a) Outside film coefficient at an air velocity of 8 km/h (fo) = 19.86 W/m2K

b) Inside film coefficient at still air (fi) = 9.36 W/m2K

Step 3: Thermal Transmittance (U) = 1/RT W/m2K (3)

4. Results and Discussion

The results of the thermal transmittance values by various combinations of wall and insulation
materials have been presented. The thickness of the wall and insulation materials considered in the
present work are based on commercial availability. Figure 1 shows the results for the minimum
thickness of all the wall materials considered in combination with all the insulation materials of
approximately 100 mm thickness.
Insulated Concrete Foam 101.6 mm
Soft Board 100 mm
0.70 Rock Wool 110 mm
Thermal Transmittance (U)

Expanded Polystyrene 100 mm

0.60
Glass Wool 115 mm
0.50
W/m2 K

0.40
0.30
0.20
0.10
0.00
Burnt brick 114.3 mm Concrete wall 152.4 mm Cellular Concrete wall
100.0 mm

Figure 1: Minimum wall size with approximately 100 mm thickness of Insulation Materials
748 V. Arivumani, V. Iyer & R. Velraj

Fig.1 shows the burnt brick (114.3 mm) and the concrete walls (152.4 mm) as indicating almost a
similar thermal transmittance in combination with the same insulation materials. However, the cellular
concrete wall with 100 mm shows a decrease in thermal transmittance compared to burnt brick and
concrete wall for all the combinations of the same insulating materials. In the case of cellular concrete
wall with various combinations of insulation materials, the glass wool with 115 mm shows the minimum
thermal transmittance value of 0.28 W/m2 K which is nearly 39.13% less than that of the insulated
concrete foam. Further, rock wool and expanded polystyrene also show a considerable reduction in
thermal transmittance compared to the insulated concrete foam and soft board.
Figures 2 and 3 show the results for the minimum thickness of all the wall materials considered in
combination with all the insulation materials of minimum and maximum thickness respectively using the
available size. Both the figures shows the soft board insulation with 25 mm thickness indicating high
thermal transmittance in particular with the minimum thickness of Burnt brick and concrete wall. The
thermal transmittance is approximately 1.5 W/m2K. Hence, the minimum thickness soft board insulation
with minimum wall size is to be avoided to protect a large heat entry through building walls. However,
figure 3 shows possibility of an appreciable reduction in thermal resistance to a value less than 0.58
W/m2K for all insulation materials for higher thickness. Insulation materials other than soft board, could
achieve a thermal transmittance value even less than 0.30 W/m2K. Hence, it is construed that, for any
building even with wall material of minimum thickness, it is possible to reduce the heat penetration to
the building by increasing the thickness of the insulation material.

2.00 Soft Board 25 mm

Rock Wool 50 mm
Thermal Transmittance (U)

Expanded Polystyrene 41 mm
1.50 Insulated Concrete Foam 101.6 mm
W/m2 K

1.00

0.50

0.00
Burnt brick 114.3 mm Concrete wall 152.4 mm Cellular Concrete wall 100.0
mm
Minimum Exterior Wall Thickness

Figure 2: Minimum wall size with minimum thickness of Insulation Materials

 Evaluating the thermal transmittance of various building materials with insulating materials 749

Soft Board 100.0 mm

Expanded Polystyrene 100.0 mm

Thermal Transmittance (U) W/m2

0.60 Glass Wool 140.0 mm
Rock Wool 170.0 mm
0.50
Insulated Concrete Foam 304.8 mm
0.40

0.30
K

0.20

0.10

0.00
Burnt brick 114.3 mm Concrete wall 152.4 mm Cellular Concrete wall 100.0
mm
Minimum Exterior Wall Thickness

Figure 3: Minimum wall size with maximum thickness of Insulation Materials

Figures 4 - 6, display the results of the thermal transmittance for the maximum thickness of all the
wall materials considered in combination with all the insulation materials of approximately 100 mm,
minimum and maximum thicknesses respectively. Figure 4 shows the results with various insulation
materials of approximately 100 mm thickness. The results are very similar to the values shown in Figure
1 where the wall materials are with minimum thickness. Hence it is concluded that, the wall material
thickness is just sufficient to withstand the structural stability, when the insulation layer is
supplemented by wall material. Heat penetration could be controlled through selection of the
appropriate insulation material with the required thickness.
Insulated Concrete Foam 101.6 mm
0.60 Soft Board 100 mm
Thermal Transmittance (U)

Rock Wool 110 mm

0.50
Expanded Polystyrene 100 mm
0.40
W/m2 K

0.30

0.20

0.10

0.00
Burnt brick 228.6 mm Concrete wall 203.2 mm Cellular Concrete wall
200.0 mm
Maximum Exterior Wall Thickness
Figure 4: Maximum wall size with approximately 100 mm thickness of Insulation Materials
750 V. Arivumani, V. Iyer & R. Velraj

The conclusion drawn from Figure 4 is confirmed by Figure 5, which shows the thermal
transmittance is high when the insulation thickness is minimum and even with a higher thickness of the
wall material. Hence increasing the wall material thickness beyond the structural stability requirement is
not recommended when the objective is to reduce heat entry to the building.
Soft Board 25 mm
1.60 Rock Wool 50 mm
Thermal Transmittance (U) W/m2 K

Expanded Polystyrene 41 mm
1.40 Insulated Concrete Foam 101.6 mm
1.20 Glass Wool 90 mm

1.00
0.80
0.60
0.40
0.20
0.00
Burnt brick 228.6 mm Concrete wall 203.2 mm Cellular Concrete wall
200.0 mm
Maximum Exterior Wall Thickness

Figure 5: Maximum wall size with minimum thickness of Insulation Materials

Figure 6 shows the thermal transmittance for the cases with maximum thickness of wall material in
combination with maximum thickness of the insulation material. The figure shows that the decrease in
thermal transmittance is very minimal, compared to what is seen in Figure 3, in which the wall thickness
considered was minimum. The conclusion from the above result is that based on the cost of the
insulation material, a proper selection with the required thickness is to be arrived at to ensure
achievement of energy efficient low-cost building. Achieving better insulation will not only reduce the
operational cost for the space cooling but also environmental degradation.
 Evaluating the thermal transmittance of various building materials with insulating materials 751

Soft Board 100.0 mm

0.60 Expanded Polystyrene 100.0 mm

Thermal Transmittance (U)

Glass Wool 140.0 mm
0.50
Rock Wool 170.0 mm
0.40

W/m2 K
0.30
0.20
0.10
0.00
Burnt brick 228.6 mm Concrete wall 203.2 mm Cellular Concrete wall 200.0
Maximum Exterior Wall mm
Thickness

Figure 6: Maximum wall size with maximum thickness of Insulation Materials

Insulated Concrete Foam 101.6 mm
0.80 Soft Board 100 mm
Thermal Transmittance (U)

Rock Wool 110 mm

Expanded Polystyrene 100 mm
0.60
W/m2 K

0.40

0.20

0.00
Burnt brick 114.3 mm Concrete wall 152.4 mm Cellular Concrete wall
100.0 mm

Figure 7: Comparison of specific material-wall assemblies

4. Conclusion
The thermal transmittance of a building wall is one of the important parameters that see application in
the achievement of energy efficiency in building construction. In the present work, the thermal
transmittance of a building wall has been evaluated for various combinations of the building wall
material along with the insulation materials of varying thicknesses. The quantification of thermal
transmittance values for the combination of practically available extreme thicknesses of wall and
insulation material has been made. Among the various insulation materials considered, glass wool, rock
wool and expanded polystyrene in combination with cellular concrete wall material show minimal
thermal transmittance. The conclusion is that, when insulation layer is supplemented with a wall
material, the wall material thickness is just sufficient to withstand the structural stability. The thermal
transmittance ‘U’ values presented with the work will be found very useful by building design engineers
in the selection of a suitable wall material and its thickness with the consideration of heating / cooling
load. The selection of appropriate insulation material with the required thickness makes an appropriate
752 V. Arivumani, V. Iyer & R. Velraj

reduction in heat entry and hence in the cooling load requirement. The reduction in capacity of the air
conditioner reduces the energy requirement and thus contributes to environmental conservation.

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