Hygrothermal Study of a House Made of Local Biosourced Materials Based on Clay: Experimental Study

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to experimentally analyze the thermal behavior of the walls of a prototype experimental house. A Datalogger and thermocouples were used on the experimental house to determine the temperatures of the exterior and interior walls. Also, “MSR” type HygroPuce was used to determine the exterior and interior temperatures and relative humidity of the habitat. The results show that a wall made of bio-based materials with a mixture of “earth + Hibiscus cannabinus L. fibers” allows reducing the fluctuations of the interior temperatures. We observe the peaks of temperatures on the external walls at 11:00 am and for the interior walls, the peaks are observed at 5:00 pm. The maximum thermal phase shift between the peaks of the external and internal temperatures is about 7.5 hours, and the maximum damping factor is 0.9. Also, we note that the thermal performance of the material used in the design of the envelope of the house is determined by the improvement of the response of the envelope in front of the external thermal solicitations.