Energy and Buildings 116 (2016) 89–95

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Energy and Buildings

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Experimental thermal characterization of bio-based materials (Aleppo

Pine wood, cork and their composites) for building insulation
Amel Limam a,∗ , Abdellatif Zerizer a , Daniel Quenard b , Hebert Sallee b , Abdelkrim Chenak c

a
Research Unit: Materials, Processes and Environment (UR-MPE), M’Hamed Bougara University, Algeria
b
CSTB, 24 Joseph Fourier Street, 38400 Saint Martin d’Héres, France
c
CDER, BP. 62, Road Observatory Bouzareah, 16340 Algiers, Algeria

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This paper presents an experimental study of the thermal conductivity, thermal resistance, specific heat
Received 5 May 2015 and thermal diffusivity of wood, cork and their composites. The first part is devoted to the determination
Received in revised form of the thermal resistance of composite materials elaborated from solid Aleppo Pine wood, laminated
24 November 2015
timber wood and black agglomerated cork. From experimental results, we can predict the values of
Accepted 6 January 2016
the thermal conductivity, specific heat using a modulated differential scanning calorimetry (MDSC) of
Available online 7 January 2016
different samples. For the thermal conductivity, we use two different methods: the flow meter and a
thermal conductivity meter (TC meter) at laboratory conditions (23 ◦ C, 50% RH). However, we have the
Keywords:
Aleppo Pine wood
possibility to calculate the thermal resistance and the thermal diffusivity and make comparison between
Black agglomerated cork the two methods. The results have been compared with other experimental researches and usual building
Composite wood-cork materials. Furthermore, the aim of this study is to show the influence of the moisture on the values of
Thermal conductivity the thermal properties of wood and cork which has been performed in a climatic chamber (23 ◦ C, 80%
Thermal resistance RH). The results indicate that increasing the mass of the samples leads to an increase of the value of the
Specific heat thermal conductivity and a decrease in thermal resistance of sandwich structures.
Thermal diffusivity © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction helps manufacturers to make a distinct choice after a better know-

Nowadays, the energy consumption is increasing continuously
in all fields worldwide. At the same time, the cost of energy
increased because of depletion of energy sources [1] and heavy
environmental impact (ozone layer depletion, global warming,
climate change, etc.) [2]. Therefore, in order to reduce energy
consumption, particularly, in building we have elaborated a new
composite material based on wood and cork. The green solution is
the use of bio based materials Aleppo Pine wood (Pinus halepen-
sis) and black agglomerated of cork as alternative material in the
development of composite materials.
Experimental determination of thermal parameters of these
composite materials for construction is primordial in our days. It
Abbreviations: APLTW, Aleppo Pine laminated timber wood; APSW, Aleppo Pine
solid wood; BAC, black agglomerated of cork; CSTB, Scientific and Technical Building
Center; HFM, heat flow meter; MDSC, modulated differential scanning calorimetry;
PSW, polywood-faced sandwich; TC meter, thermal conductivity meter.
∗ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: limammaha@yahoo.fr (A. Limam).
ing of their work materials.
Three principal properties are usually used to describe the heat
transport through a material. These are the thermal conductivity,
specific heat and thermal diffusivity. The thermal conductivity is
the parameter, which describes the material’s ability to transmit
heat [3]. It is one of the basic parameters used to determine prop-
erties such as the thermal resistance (R) or alternatively the overall
heat transfer coefficient (U) [4]. It is measured using two methods:
the flow meter and the TC meter at a laboratory conditions (23 ◦ C,
50%). The obtained results show that both the two methods are
efficient but the flow meter method gives more precision for the
black agglomerated cork. For this reason, all the following results
are obtained from measurements using the flow meter. Samples of
whole solid, laminated timber wood and black agglomerated cork
are conditioned in a climatic chamber in which the relative humid-
ity is 80% and the temperature is fixed at 23 ◦ C. The results show the
sensitivity of this bio based materials and their sandwich assem-
blies to the water content; its thermal properties must be taken
into account when we build with it.
Specific heat describes the capacity of the material to absorb,
store and release heat. It is widely used in thermodynamic analysis

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2016.01.007
0378-7788/© 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
90 A. Limam et al. / Energy and Buildings 116 (2016) 89–95

Fig. 1. Photos of black agglomerated cork tested specimens.

and in dynamic simulation modeling of buildings [4]. In this work, 2. Materials and methods
we measure the specific heat capacity of the three different mate-
rials using a calorimeter apparatus. The obtained results are in the 2.1. Used materials
temperature range of 0–50 ◦ C, the aim of this part is to determinate
the specific heat of inhomogeneous materials using a differential 2.1.1. Black agglomerated cork (BAC)
scanning calorimetry [5]. Three cork specimens are tested by means of the TC meter appa-
Thermal diffusivity is the rate of heat diffusion per unit time ratus have a square form of 0.04 m of thickness and 0.1 m of length
[6], it is the thermophysical property that defines the speed of heat (Fig. 1). Three other tested cork specimens are tested by means of
propagation by conduction during changes of temperature; It is the flow meter have also a square form with 0.04 m of thicknesses
the key parameter that controls the temperature distribution as a and 0.2 m of length (Fig. 1). The agglomerated cork is a material
function of time [7]. derived from the bark cork oak tree (Quercus Suber) [16]. It is col-
There are a lot of papers that assessed the thermal properties lected usually at the edge of the Mediterranean: Portugal, Spain,
of wood, which are needed in applications such as fuel conver- Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and France [17]. It is obtained from cork
sion, building construction and other fields of industry [8]. Harada granules after grinding tablets in an autoclave at 350 ◦ C. The resin
et al. [9] measured the thermal conductivity, specific heat and content of the bark plays the role of a natural bind to agglomerate
thermal diffusivity of 13 species of wood by means of the laser the granules, when the panels come out of the autoclave, they will
flash method to investigate the thermal properties of wood during be traversed by a flow of water for cooling.
the heating process. Suleiman et al. [10] studied thermal conduc-
tivity and diffusivity of Swedish wood. The results showed that 2.1.2. Aleppo Pine wood (APW)
thermal conductivity slightly increases with temperature increase Six specimens of solid wood and laminated timber wood are
(20–100 ◦ C) in both longitudinal and transverse directions, and tested by means of the TC meter have a square form with 0.02 m
detect a significant difference in the thermal conductivity between of thicknesses and 0.1 m of length (Fig. 2). Six other specimens are
the longitudinal and the transverse directions. tested by means of the flow meter have a square form with 0.02 m
The cork is a good insulator, it is assessed in the work of Silva of thicknesses and 0.2 m of length (Fig. 2). The Aleppo Pine (Pinus
et al. [11] in which they showed the chemical, physical and mechan- halepensis) is a conifer that belongs to the Panacea family. It is a
ical properties and its applications. Chekri et al. [12] discussed the rustic species, which characterizes the semiarid Mediterranean bio-
thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity and heat capacity of the climatic zone [18]. The wood of Aleppo Pine is a light species; its low
composite material granular. The thermal conductivity is obtained
by using an alternative hot plate method in steady state regime.
The results show that this composite material granular can be con-
sidered as being homogeneous for particles in the granular class
D = 6.3–8 mm and for granular cork volume proportion content
greater than 40%. Olivares et al. [13] and Chekri et al. [14] exam-
ined the feasibility of using composites based on cork–gypsum. The
results of Olivares et al. showed the potential of these composite
(cork-gypsum) to be used as a partition wall owing to their thermal
insulating obtained from the cork. In addition to that, the results of
Chekri et al. have shown the efficiency of method of asymmetri-
cal transient hot Plate method for thermal characterization of high
insulating granular material. Thermal conductivity is also obtained
by using an alternative hot plate method in steady state regime.
For the sandwich assemblies wood-cork, there were a few works
in the field of sandwich structures. We notice Kawasaki and Kawai
[15] which make a large studies of thermal insulation and warmth-
keeping properties of thick plywood-faced sandwich panels with
low density fiberboard (plywood-faced sandwich, PSW). As in our
studies, the  values were measured for PSW panels, their core
and face elements using a flow meter apparatus. In this paper, we
compared our results with those obtained by Kawasaki and Kawai. Fig. 2. Photos of Aleppo Pine wood tested specimens.
 A. Limam et al. / Energy and Buildings 116 (2016) 89–95
Fig. 3. Elaboration steps of sandwich assemblies.
water requirements (300 mm or even less) and the abundance of
grains allow it to rapidly colonize the most forest stations. In Alge-
ria, the forest area contains an average of eight hundred thousand
hectares of Aleppo Pine [19].
2.1.3. BAC/APW composites
Three tested samples based on BAC and APW composites are
obtained from superimposing two wooden layers (solid wood, lam-
inated timber wood and the combination of the two) bonded with
an inner cork layer (Fig. 3) with thicknesses of either 0.04 m or
0.08 m. The objective is to observe the coupling effect of wood and
cork on the value of the thermal conductivity and resistance.
2.2. Used experimental apparatus
2.2.1. The thermal conductivity meter (TC meter)
The measurement is based on the analysis of temperature
response of the analyzed material to heat flow impulses [20]. Heat
flow is excited by electrical heating of the resistor heater inserted
into the probe, which is in direct contact with the tested sample. The
experiment is carried out in accordance with standard NF EN ISO
8894-1 (August 2010) [21]. Indeed, using the TC meter (Fig. 4) gives
us the possibility to insert the heating power and the measuring
time.
To achieve a relatively precise result, we test each sample of
agglomerated cork at least three times while we test the solid and
the laminated timber wood at the parallel and perpendicular direc-
tion.
2.2.2. The flow meter
The heat flow meter (HFM) is another apparatus which is used
to determinate the thermal resistance experimentally. The HFM
(Fig. 5) consists of two plates where the test sample is placed in-
between [22]. The dimensions of the samples are of 0.2 m × 0.2 m,
with variable thickness. Each plate has its own heat flow sensor,
located in the central area. Working with a smaller measuring area
than the dimensions of the samples reduces the measurement error
due to lateral heat losses. The average sample temperature can be
set between 263 K and 323 K. Hence, the temperature differences
between hot and cold plates are situated between 10 K and 30 K. The
top plate acts as a hot plate and the bottom one as a refrigerated
plate, so steady conditions can be obtained by placing the sample
between these two plates.
Fig. 4. Thermal conductivity test apparatus (TC meter).
91
In each plate, there are three types of thermocouples. The ther-
mal resistance of the tested sample is calculated in Eq. (4) using the
measured average temperatures of each plate and the average heat
flow of the two plates.
2.2.3. The MDSC7 apparatus
The MDSC (modulated differential scanning calorimetry) exper-
iments were carried out on a temperature-modulated DSC
(differential scanning calorimetry) [23]. MDSC is an analytical tech-
nique in which the difference in heat flow between a sample and an
inert reference is measured as a function of time and temperature.
The sample and reference are subjected to a controlled environ-
ment of time, temperature, atmosphere and pressure. In this design
(Fig. 6), a metallic disk is the primary means of heat transfer to and
from the sample and reference. The sample mass is in the range of
5–10 mg; it is contained in a metallic pan which is put on a disk.
As heat is transferred through the disk, the differential heat flow
between the sample and the reference is measured by thermocou-
ples. The latter, measures also the sample temperature which still
continuously increases with time but does not in a linear fashion.
2.3. Used methods
Thermal conductivity measurements of wood and black agglom-
erated cork have been tested at CSTB according to the standard NF
EN 12664 (July, 2001) [24] for the flow meter tests, and the standard
NF EN ISO 8894-1 (August 2010) [21] for the TC meter tests.
Fig. 5. Flow meter apparatus.
Fig. 6. MDSC7 apparatus.
92 A. Limam et al. / Energy and Buildings 116 (2016) 89–95

Table 1
Measurements of thermal properties Aleppo Pine wood, cork and their composites structures using TC meter.

Specimen d (mm)  (kg/m3 ) // (W/m K) R// (m2 K/W) ⊥ (W/m K) R⊥ (m2 K/W)

APSW 20 580 0.18 ± 0.11 0.11 0.281 ± 0.13 0.07

APLTW 20 360 0.14 ± 0.09 0.14 0.203 ± 0.01 0.10
BAC 40 65 0.036 ± 0.015 1.11
80 0.037 ± 0.013 2.15
Assemblies
(APSW-BAC-APSW) 80 322 0.062 ± 0.034 1.33 0.064 ± 0.032 1.25
120 0.051 ± 0.03 2.37 0.052 ± 0.026 2.29
(APLTW-BAC-APLTW) 80 212 0.057 ± 0.021 1.39 0.061 ± 0.010 1.31
120 0.049 ± 0.016 2.43 0.051 ± 0.030 2.35
(APSW-BAC-APLTW) 80 267 0.058 ± 0.04 1.36 0.062 ± 0.041 1.28
120 0.053 ± 0.016 2.40 0.052 ± 0.032 2.32

, density; d, thickness during the measurement; //, thermal conductivity in parallel direction; ⊥ , thermal conductivity in perpendicular direction; R//, thermal resistance
in parallel direction; R⊥ , thermal resistance in perpendicular direction.

To calculate the thermal resistance of the composites (wood- 2.4. Tests conditions
cork), we have assimilated our case to composite walls. Such walls
may involve any number of series and parallel thermal resistances Firstly, measurements were performed at the laboratory con-
due to layers of different materials. Consider the series composite ditions (23 ◦ C, 50%HR). The temperature and the moisture of the
wall of Fig. 3. The one-dimensional heat conduction for this system samples during the test are respectively 23 ◦ C and the 15% RH.
might be expressed using Fourier’s law of heat conduction for the Density values of the samples tested for the three materials (Solid
wall which can be expressed as: wood, laminated timber wood and black agglomerated cork) are
presented in Table 1. Secondly, the measurements were performed
dt
Qcond,wall = −A × (W) (1) on wet samples to study the effect of moisture on the thermal con-
dx
ductivity of the materials and their sandwich. All the specimens
where  is the thermal conductivity, A the wall area, and were left in air dried condition in a well ventilated room for 2 weeks.
dt/dx = constant (because the temperature through the wall varies After that, they were conditioned at 23 ◦ C and 80% relative humid-
linearly with x). Integrating and rewriting the above equation ity. Both thermal conductivity and water content were determined
yields: for each sample after 5, 10, 15, 20 days in the climatic chamber.
t1 − t2
Qcond,wall = −A × (W) (2)
x
3. Results and discussion
With t1 the temperature inside surface and t2 is the temperature
outside surface, x is the distance between the two surfaces of the
3.1. Laboratory conditions
wall and A is the wall surface.
Eq. (2) for heat conduction through a plane wall can be written
The value of thermal conductivity is dependent on the kind and
as:
the structure of wood: density and water content. The raw material
t1 − t2 is further composed of relatively dense fibers oriented in the direc-
Qcond,wall = (3)
Rwall tion of growth of the tree; its thermal conductivity is higher when
where Rwall (m2 K/W) is the conduction resistance expressed as: the direction of the heat flow is perpendicular to the direction of
its veins. Table 1 gathers some obtained conductivity values in the
−x
Rwall = (4) parallel and perpendicular direction to the fibers.
A Using the TC meter, the average values (Table 1) of the thermal
In our case: conductivity of the five specimens of Aleppo Pine solid and lami-
nated timber wood in each direction are given in Table 1. One can
Rwall = Rwood1 + Rcork + Rwood2 (5)
see that the average value of the thermal conductivity in perpendic-
The equation is known as the differential equation of heat trans- ular direction is higher than the average value in parallel direction.
fer: For the solid wood, a difference of 0.1 W/m K between the obtained
2 2 values of the two directions. For the laminated timber wood, there
T/t = (/ · cp ) · (∂ T/∂ x) (6)
is a difference of 0.06 W/m K. For the cork, the average values of six
With  the density and cp the specific heat measurements in all directions for each sample are presented in
The constant [/·cp ]in the Eq. (6) is the thermal diffusivity a: Table 1. The average value is about 0.037 W/m K with a resistance
of 2.15 m2 K/W and a thickness of 0.04 m.
 For the flow meter, the obtained values (Table 2) are more pre-
a= (7)
 · cp cise because the flow is sent in all directions. The average values

Table 2
Measurements of thermal properties of Aleppo Pine wood, cork and their composites structures using flow meter.

Specimen d (mm)  (kg/m3 )  (W/m K) R (m2 K/W) a (m2 /h)

APSW 20 580 0.192 ± 0.14 0.10 0.00079

APLTW 20 360 0.143 ± 0.10 0.14 0.00092
BAC 40 65 0.041 ± 0.02 0.98 0.00119
(APSW-BAC-APSW) 80 322 0.068 ± 0.016 1.18 0.00015
(APLTW-BAC-APLTW) 80 212 0.063 ± 0.023 1.26 0.00021
APSW-BAC-APLTW) 80 267 0.065 ± 0.026 1.22 0.00017
 A. Limam et al. / Energy and Buildings 116 (2016) 89–95
of the thermal conductivity are about 0.19 W/m K for the solid
wood and 0.14 W/m K for the laminated timber wood. The Wood
Handbook [25] shows that the most wood thermal conductivity is
between 0.10 and 0.21 W/m K in 12% water content.
For the cork, the thermal conductivity measured by the flow
meter is about 0.041 W/m K with a resistance value of 0.98 m2 K/W
and a thickness of 0.04 m. The agglomerated cork is lightweight
because of its honeycomb structure with a total open porosity of
0.8. In addition to that, it allows air to permeate the crevices and
hence, to trap it; this contributes to the insulating properties. Cork is
made up of hollow polyhedral cells, which means that each cell has
14 sides. The cell walls are flexible, strong, waterproof and airtight,
resulting in an insulating material with a low-density.
The black agglomerated cork is a good insulator, but the TC
meter used for this measurement gives more than one values with
a less precision comparing with the flow meter. For this reason, we
have adopted the flow meter for the rest of the experimentation.
The thermal resistance allows us to get the thermal conductivity
of sandwich assemblies (wood-cork) using Eq. (5). For the sym-
metrical ones, the thermal conductivity average value is around
0.06 W/m K for a total thickness of 0.08 m. It is around 0.05 W/m K
for a total thickness of 0.12 m. For asymmetrical assemblies, the
average value of the thermal conductivity is around 0.06 W/m K
for a total thickness of 0.08 m. It is around 0.05 W/m K for a thick-
ness of 0.12 m. We notice that all the sandwich structures are good
insulators with a thermal conductivity value around 0.05 W/m K
(0.12 m of thickness). Comparing with Kawasaki and Kawai results,
for a density of 260 kg/m3 the values of thermal conductivity of
a plywood-faced sandwich panel (PSW350) is about 0.064 W/m K
(0.19 m of thickness).
Indeed, increasing thickness induces an increasing of thermal
resistance and a decrease of thermal conductivity.
For more comparison, the thermal conductivity of some build-
ing materials such as concrete (2200 kg/m3 ) is in the order of
1.66 W/m K, cinder block (1100 kg/m3 ) is 0.95 W/m K, and the solid
brick (1850 kg/m3 ) is about 1.15 W/m K. The thermal conductivity
of some insulator materials such as the rock wool (138 kg/m3 ) is
0.046 W/m K, hemp wool (40 kg/m3 ) is 0.06 W/m K and the wood
wool is 0.05 W/m K [26]. Our new developed hybrid panel can be
ranked among the insulations materials with a thermal conductiv-
ity of 0.06 W/m k.
3.2. Climatic chamber conditions (23 ◦ C, 80% RH)
This part makes together the results of the total conductivity
measurements of the two configurations of Aleppo Pine wood and
black agglomerated cork using the flow meter apparatus. Samples
are conditioned in a climatic chamber contained 80% of moisture
and 23 ◦ C of temperature. The main purpose of this part is to observe
the effect of moisture on the value of the thermal conductivity
of three components of the sandwich assemblies. The results are
shown in Figs. 7–9.
Fig. 7. Thermal conductivity of black agglomerated cork according to its water con-
tent.
93
Fig. 8. Thermal conductivity of solid Aleppo Pine wood according to its water con-
tent.
For black agglomerated cork, the average values of thermal con-
ductivity of the two samples are presented in Fig. 7.
For the solid wood, the average values of thermal conductivity
of the two samples are presented in Fig. 8.
For the laminated timber wood, the average values of thermal
conductivity of two samples are presented in Fig. 9.
We notice the strong influence of moisture on the thermal
conductivity value in the three materials. For cork, the average ini-
tial value at laboratory conditions is 0.041 W/m K; it increases to
0.042 W/m K with about 3% of water content at climatic chamber
conditions. For solid wood, the average initial value laboratory is
0.19 W/m K; it increases to 0.199 W/m K with about 2% of water
content at climatic chamber conditions. Finally, for laminated tim-
ber wood, the average initial value at the laboratory conditions is
0.13 W/m K; it increases to 0.14 W/m K with about 1.5% of water
content at climatic chamber conditions.
Increasing water content leads to an increase of the thermal con-
ductivity and a decrease of the thermal resistance. In fact, we can
also conclude that the thermal conductivity of the sandwich struc-
tures is influenced by the water content. We notice also that the
adhesive and the structure of the laminated timber wood decrease
the value of the thermal conductivity compared with that of the
solid wood.
Thermal diffusivity (a) is an indicator of warmth-keeping per-
formance, which is proportional to  and inversely proportional to
cp . This data can be calculated according to a literature method (Eq.
(7)).
A low value of a means good warmth-keeping performance. As
shown in Table 2, the a values of Aleppo Pine solid wood specimens,
laminated timber wood, black agglomerated cork and sandwich
assemblies panels generally decreased in correlation with decrease
in .
For the faces values of sandwich assemblies, the cp values are
higher than those of the cores.
Fig. 9. Thermal conductivity of laminated timber wood according to its water con-
tent.
94 A. Limam et al. / Energy and Buildings 116 (2016) 89–95
Fig. 10. Evaluation of the specific heat as a function of temperature. (A) For the black agglomerated cork, (B) Solid wood, (C) laminated timber wood.
The cp values of the faces (APSW, APLTW) and the core (BAC)
are respectively about 5, 4.9 J/kg K and 4.5 J/Kg K. As a result, the
values of a of assemblies (APSW-BAC APSW), (APLTW-BAC-APLTW)
and (APSW-BAC-APLTW) are respectively 0.00015 and 0.00021
and 0.00017 m2 /h (Table 2). Compared to results of Kawasaki and
Kawai, the value of a of the PSW350 ( = 340 kg/m2 ) panels is
0.00050 m2 /h. As a result, the warmth-keeping effect of PSW350
panels lower than that of our new sandwich materials.
3.3. Specific heat of the studied materials
The specific heat “Cp is a data required to solve heat transfer
function of time [27]. It was measured by the CSTB calorimeter
apparatus over our samples according to a standard protocol for
differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) testing (ASTM-E1269)[28].
The obtained results in the temperature range of 0–45 ◦ C for three
samples of black agglomerated cork, which may be described as
homogeneous tissue of thin walled cells, regularly arranged with-
out intercellular space [11]. Solid wood and laminated timber wood
(Aleppo Pine appeared as more homogeneous wood that other pine
[29]) are shown respectively in Fig. 10(A–C). It shows also the heat
capacities of these materials.
In this study, a heat-iso temperature profile has been applied to
measure the specific heat of Aleppo Pine wood and black agglom-
erated cork. This means that the modulated temperature never
decreases [30]. The MDSC experiments have been carried out with
temperature amplitude of 2 ◦ C. The specific heat increases slightly
with the temperature. In an ambient one (23 ◦ C), the specific heat of
the black agglomerated cork is about 1.90 J/g K. For the solid wood,
the specific heat is about 1.55 J/g K and for the laminated timber
wood, the specific heat is about 1.50 J/g K. Because of its honeycomb
structure, we notice that the cork is a good absorber of heat com-
pared with the wood, while the laminated timber wood is slightly
more absorber than the solid wood.
4. Conclusion
The thermal properties of wood-cork sandwich panels with dif-
ferent thicknesses were comprehensively investigated. Aleppo Pine
wood, black agglomerated cork and their composites were exam-
ined. The results were compared with those Kawasaki and Kawai
results and ordinary building materials.
The  values of symmetrical and asymmetrical sandwich
structures (APSW-BAC-APSW), APLTW-BAC-APLTW and APSW-
BAC-APLTW with respective densities 322 kg/m3 , 212 kg/m3 and
267 kg/m3 were 0.068 W/m K, 0.063 W/m K and 0.065 W/m K
respectively. The values of R were 1.18 m2 K/W, 1.28 m2 K/W and
1.22 m2 K/W respectively. The values of Cp were respectively 5 J/g K,
4.9 J/g K and 4.95 J/g K respectively and the values of a were 0.00015,
0.00021 and 0.00017 m2/ h respectively.
Our new sandwich panels showed approximately similar ther-
mal properties compared to those of Kawasaki and Kawai using a
flow meter apparatus and in the same range to those of insulators
such as the hemp wool (40 kg/m3 of density).
We can also draw other conclusions:
• It is preferable to design the two wooden layers parallel to the
heat flow by what we always get the small values of the thermal
conductivity.
• The Algerian black agglomerated cork have a good thermal prop-
erties ( = 0.041 W/m K, Cp = 1.9 J/g K).
• The moisture affects the thermal conductivity and the thermal
resistance of the studied bio-based materials.
The sandwich assemblies obtained the characteristics of both
advantages of the black agglomerated cork core and Aleppo Pine
wood face.
For the application of the new elaborated sandwich panels in
building construction, the thermal insulation performance should
 A. Limam et al. / Energy and Buildings 116 (2016) 89–95
be investigated on a larger scale, considering parameters such as
overall heat-transfer coefficient [15]. But, following the comparison
that we made with different materials, we can deduce the possibil-
ity of using these low-density materials for thermal insulation and
ensure a desired comfort.
This work is an initiation for more detailed studies of permeabil-
ity, sorption and desorption isotherms of Aleppo Pine wood, cork
and their composite which still remain an open areas of research
and investigation where more experimental and modeling work
are needed.
Acknowledgments
Special thanks to the Scientific and Technical Building Center
(CSTB) in France for having allowed us to undertake all the mea-
surements of this research in its laboratory.
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