Analysis of the thermal performances of uninsulated and bio-based insulated compressed earth blocks walls: from the material to the wall scale

The lively international debate on the future of the built environment has placed the emphasis on the possibilities offered by bio and geo-based building materials. Among these, raw earth-based materials offer several advantages associated to their reusability and low embodied energy.Nowadays, several companies are basing their production lines on prefabricated raw earth products, as is the case of compressed earth blocks (from now on CEBs). CEBs are commercialized for the construction of massive vertical envelopes, characterized by a high thermal inertia. Nevertheless, in order to compete with conventional building materials, it is also necessary to guarantee a high thermal resistance.In this work, this issue was solved by the design and testing of full-scale uninsulated and bio-based thermal insulated CEB walls. In this way, the thermal performance of CEB walls can be increased to meet the high energy requirements currently adopted in European Countries. Furthermore, the choice of bio-based insulations represents the main novelty of the study, aimed at finding hygrothermal compatible solutions at a low environmental cost.More in detail, this work reports the results of the thermal and physical material characterization of CEBs and of two innovative bio-based thermal insulations (lime hemp and sugarcane bagasse panels), and compare them with measurements made on full-scale uninsulated and insulated CEB walls. For this purpose, the walls are tested inside a double-room climatic chamber where they are subjected to variable temperatures on their two faces, reproducing typical indoor and outdoor conditions during summer and winter conditions in a continental climate.Results show the enhancement of thermal performances of compressed earth blocks walls when thin layers of bio-based thermal insulations are added. The thermal resistance of weakly bio-based insulated CEB walls is found to be nine times (for the sugarcane bagasse insulated CEB wall) and four times (for the lime hemp insulated CEB wall) higher than that of uninsulated CEB walls. Moreover, the addition of the insulation layers enhances the time lag and the decrement factor of compressed earth block walls.