Thermal Conductivity of Reinforced Geopolymer Foams

Reinforced geopolymer foams were studied in this work as potential building materials.It has been widely assumed that for a given thermal conductivity λ [W•m -1 •K -1 ], geopolymer foams can have a lighter density than other materials.The study sought to test this assumption by comparing the thermal conductivity between geopolymer foams.The thermal conductivity λ was measured using an ISOMET 2014 device.In all the experiments, the geopolymer foams were obtained by adding aluminium powder and several combinations: silica fume and fine sand reinforced by short basalt fibres.Curing was carried out at room temperature and then in a furnace at 70 °C.After the curing process, the properties of the samples were tested at 7 and 28 days.The results show that the thermal conductivity, porosity, compressive strength, flexural strength and density for all of the tests ranged in the following values: 0.13 -0.359 W•m -1 •K -1 ; 41.8 -62.5 %; 1.94 -9 MPa; 0.96 -2.93 MPa; 546 -1028 kg•m -3 , respectively.It was proven that the filler in the geopolymer foams has a significant influence on the mechanical and physical properties of the tested samples.