A novel anisotropic analytical model for effective thermal conductivity tensor of dry lime-hemp concrete with preferred spatial distributions

Abstract

This article develops a novel mathematical model using multi-scale homogenization approach to model the effective thermal conductivity tensors of a hemp shiv particle and lime hemp concrete (LHC). This bio-based material is an environmentally-friendly material that is used more and more in building construction. The thermal conductivity of lime hemp concrete which is generally either cast or sprayed, cannot be expressed as a scalar due to its anisotropic microstructure. The paper develops a novel model to predicting effective thermal conductivity tensor of lime-hemp concrete that takes into account the anisotropy and the size of hemp shiv, the preferred spatial distributions due to fabrication process and the imperfect particle-binding interfaces. Two probability density functions are used for modeling the particle size distributions of hemp shiv and the preferred alignment distribution of hemp particles. A good agreement is obtained between the model and experimental data provided in the literature. The presented analytical solutions offer a suitable tool for a fast optimization of the thermal conductivity of hemp concrete. Such promising future is very useful for the building design, in particular in three-dimensional (3D) simulation models.