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Abstract—Using agricultural waste materials such as wheat straw
in the manufacture of construction materials may present several
advantages enabling the reduction of the energy consumption
and the environmental impact in the building sector. The
purpose of this investigation is to examine the effect of the
consistency of clay and the variation of straw mass fraction on
the thermophysical properties of the composite material clay-
straw. Therefore, we studied the thermal behavior of the
different samples by mixing clay in two different consistency
(liquid and plastic consistency) with different percentages of
saturated straw (1, 2, 3, 4 and 5%, respectively). Experimental
measurements using flash and state hot plate methods are
conducted in order to measure the apparent thermal diffusivity
and the apparent thermal conductivity, respectively. Results
demonstrated that whatever the clay consistency used, the
addition of straw in the clay matrix improve the thermal
properties. It is shown as well that the consistency of clay affects
significantly the apparent density and the thermal behavior of
the composites studied.
I. INTRODUCTION
Using agricultural waste materials such as wheat straw in
the manufacture of construction materials may present several
advantages enabling the reduction of the energy consumption
and the environmental impact in the building sector.
Many studies have been published concerning the thermal
behavior of material based on clay. The object of the work of
Laaroussi et al. [1] is the measurement of thermal properties of
fired clay. Another work for Lamrani et al. [2] concerning
thermal characterization of clay mixed with pomace olive the
results showed that this additive can improve the thermal
The objective of this work is studied the effect of
consistency of clay and addition of straw on thermal behavior
of composite based on clay. The thermal characterization was
done using the state hot plate method to determine the thermal
conductivity and flash method to define the thermal diffusivity.
II. DESCRIPTION OF USED MATERIALS
A. clay
The unfired clay used in the manufacture of samples was
extracted from Marrakech region located in the south of
Morocco.
The test of Atterberg limits and the Particle size analysis
were carried out to determine the geotechnical and the physical
properties of the raw material. Particle size distribution was
determined using a sieving test according to standard NF P 94-
056 [7]. Figure 1 shows the used grain size distribution for the
clay. The consistency limits were determined using a standard
method according to standard NF P94-051 [8] for measuring
liquid and plastic limits. Table 1 illustrates the Atterberg limits
obtained for raw clay. The Plasticity index was also reported on
this table.
The mineralogy of clay was characterized using X-Ray
Diffraction (XRD) analysis and the results are represented in
figure 1. the samples were generally composed of: quatrz,
calcite, dolomite and clay minerals (Kaolinite, Illite,
Vermiculite).
100
90
80
70
passing %

properties of materials based on clay. A series of research 60

50
studies have been done on clay blended with natural additives 40
30
such as the work El Azhary et al. [3] which studies the thermal 20
10
properties of unfired clay by mixing it with straw. Calatan et al. 0
[4] evaluated the effect of addition of hemp fiber in adobe 0.01 0.1 1 10 100
bricks on the mechanical strength and the thermal conductivity. sive size(mm)
Andres et al. [5] studied the mechanical behavior clay mortar
Figure 1. Grain size curves of the used clay
mixing with straw. The results showed that the use of saturated
straw has increased the mechanical resistance of clay mortar
compared with the use dry-straw. Ashour et al. [6] examined
the influence of addition natural fibers on thermal properties of
composite based on earth plaster.

 
 
 consistency of clay and kept equal to 55% (kept higher than the
liquid limit) for obtained liquid consistency of clay.
The samples were prepared in a mold which dimensions are

Figure 2. The X-ray diffractometre of raw clay used Figure 3. View of composite samples with different percentages of straw and
two used consistency

100×100×20 mm3. After, the samples have been prepared,

TABLE I. ATTERBERG LIMITS OF THE RAW CLAY USED
Atterberg Limits
Liquidity Limit(%) Plasticity Limit(%) Plasticity Index(%)
37 23
B. Straw
The fibers used in this work were taken from wheat straw
which are characterized by the medium diameter of (1.25-
2.5mm) and the size particles are about 1 cm.
III. EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH
A. Water absorption rate measurement of straw
The fiber straw is previously dried in an oven at 65°C until
reached constant weight. The weight difference between the
fiber after immersion in water at time t and the dry sample
permits to calculate the percentage of water absorption (WA)
as function of time t using the following equation :
they were then dried in an oven at a temperature of 70°C to
remove the existing pores moisture. Finally, the samples were
packed in plastic bags to eliminate any kind of moisture
absorption.
14
With :
x CPi: are the samples prepared with the ratio of straw
mass to clay mass equal to i (%) and (0< i <6) and the
water proportion clay ratio was kept equal to 28%
(plastic consistency).
x CLi: are the samples prepared with the ratio of straw
mass to clay mass equal to i(%) and (0<i<6) and the
water proportion clay ratio was kept equal to 55%
(liquid consistency).
C. thermal properties mesurement
1) flash method
This method permits to estimate the thermal diffusivity ,Its
basic principle is described in the Figure 4.

m  t   m  dry 
  WA  % u100 
m  dry 
with m(dry): dry mass of straw
m(t): mass of fiber after immersion at time t.

B. Samples preparation
The samples presented in Figure 3 were prepared by mixing
clay with a different percentages of straw (1, 2,3, 4 and 5%,
respectively).natural fibers have ability to absorb a large
amount of water in a short time, the results in this work showed
that straw absorb around 410% of their own weight, another
research of [5] concerning material based on wheat straw
conduct a similar results (straw absorb around 366% of their
own weight in water in 3 hours), So in order to neutralize this
high absorbency of water of fiber straw and to maintain the
same initial mixing water during samples confection, The straw
used was emerged in water during 72 hours until complete
saturation before placing them in clay paste. Two different
consistency of Clay (liquid and plastic consistency) are used
and mixing with a different percentage of saturated straw.
Water proportion clay ratio was kept equal to 28% (kept
between the plastic and the liquid limit) for obtained plastic
Figure 4. Schematic of the flash method
a) Hypothesis
We assume that the sample is perfectly isolated at its lateral
sides. There won’t be any lateral heat-loss in order to allow one
dimension heat conduction across the sample. The absorbed
energy at the front face of opaque sample is uniform and initial
temperature T0 of the material equal to the ambient
temperature.
b) Mathematical model
The rise temperature T is governed by the following
system.
 ­ 2 U2
° w T  x, t  1 wT
.
‡ ‡1  ‡ 2
R.S
° wx 2
a wt
° λ1
‡1 T0  T1 
°O. wT  x, t  h1.T  0, t   Q0 .f  t  . e1
° wx
x 0
λ2
° ‡2 T0  T2 
° wT  x, t 
®O. h 2 .T  e, t  .  2 e2
wx
x e
° e1 ª λ º
° λ1 ‡  2 T0  T2  »  4
­1 T0  T1 ¬ e2 ¼
° ° , 0 d t d td .
°f (t) ® t d 
° °0 , t d d t.
¯
° ø is the total flow emitted by the heating element. λ1 The
°T  x,0  0. thermal conductivity of the studied sample, e1 is the thickness
¯
Where a and λ are the thermal diffusivity and the thermal of the sample; λ2 = 0.047 W.m-1.K-1 and e2 = 10 mm: are
conductivity, respectively, h1 and h2 are the global heat successively the thermal conductivity and thickness of the
exchange coefficients on both sides of the sample, [Q0.×f(t)] is insulating foam.
the finite pulse with duration td, Q0(W/m2)is the finite amount
of heat absorbed at the front boundary (x=0) and f(t) is the time
dependence of the heat generation assimilated as a square
function. The time td is the duration of flash .
The Laplace transform of Eq.1 allows to express the
Laplace transform T of the rise temperature as:
1  e p.td · e2
Tma .¨¨ ¸
© p.t d ¹ a
 e,Tma ,a,bi1, bi2 ,p   3
ª § ·º Figure 5. Schema of hot plate in steady state regime
§ e2 · § ¨ ¸»
e2 ·  bi1.bi2  e2 ¸ »
 bi1  bi2  Cosh ¨¨ p ¸¸  Sinh ¨¨ p¸  p
a a ¸ ¨ e2 a ¸» IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
© ¹ © ¹¨
¨ p ¸¸ »
¬« © a ¹ ¼»
A. Thermophysical properties
With : e is the thickness of the sample, bi1 and bi2 are the The thermophysical properties of the studied composite
h1e h 2e materials are reported in Table II and Table III.
Biot numbers respectively, bi1 and bi2
O O
Q 0 is the adiabatic limit temperature where c TABLE II: THERMOPHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF COMPOSITE MATERIALS
Tma PREPARED WITH PLASTIC CONSISTENCY OF CLAY
Uce
is the specific heat and ρ is the density. Estimated Estimated ρ [kg/m3]
The theoretical thermogram of the rise temperature on the Sample diffusivity λ[W.m-1.K-1]
a×10-7[m2.s-1]
rear face Tth (e,Tma,a,bi1,bi2,t) is then obtained by inversing 3.598 0.421 1861.50
CP1
numerically the solution (3) using the Gaver-Stehfest method
[9]. CP2 3.45 0.375 1680.41
The four parameters Tma, a, bi1 and bi2 were simultaneously 3.331 0.326 1570.10
CP3
estimated by minimizing the quadratic error M between Tth and
the experimental thermograms Texp using Nelder Mead CP4 3.127 0.302 1519
algorithm [10]. 3.041 0.259 1460
CP5
2) Hot plate in the steady state regime
This method permits to estimate the thermal conductivity, it TABLE III: THERMOPHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF COMPOSITE MATERIALS
based on temperature measurements at the center of heating PREPARED WITH LIQUID CONSISTENCY OF CLAY
element inserted between the sample and polyethylene foam,
the heating element is a plan electrical resistance, the power Estimated Estimated ρ [kg/m3]
dissipated by joule effect is known and the flux is considered Sample diffusivity λ[W.m-1.K-1]
a×10-7[m2.s-1]
uniform over its entire surface. Once the system reaches the 3.251 0.35 1420.3
CL1
steady state regime and assuming one-dimensional heat
conduction, we can write: CL2 3.05 0.323 1385.5

CL3 2.612 0.281 1351.4

CL4 2.431 0.227 1310.2

CL5 2.295 0.199 1296

 1) Density
From the knowledge of the exact dimensions and masses of
the dry samples. We can easily deduce their apparent densities
which are illustrated in figure 6
Figure 6. View of densities according to different mass fraction of straw
(liquid and plastic consistency)
It is clear from Fig. 6 that the density of the samples
decreases with the increase in the percentage of fibers straw
whatever the clay consistency used. It is also noted that the
density is influenced by the consistency of clay. The density of
the sample (CP1) prepared with the ratio 1% of straw is
1861.5 kg/m3 while the density of sample (CL1) with the same
percentage of straw, is only 1420.3 kg/m3.
This difference can be explained by the fact that the amount of
initial mixing water sets the final porosity of the material [11].
The decrease in the density according to the percentage of
straw for samples prepared with clay in liquid consistency is
very low. The density of a sample CL1 is 1420.3 kg/m3,
whereas that of a lighter sample CL5 is 1296 kg/m3. This
decrease is less than 8.74%.
2) thermal conductivity
It is observed that the addition of straw fiber in the clay
matrix reduces the thermal conductivity of the composite.
Figure 7. View of thermal conductivity according to different mass fraction
of straw (liquid and plastic consistency)
This reduction is expected because the straw fibers have a
lower thermal conductivity compared to that of the clay matrix.
On the other hand the porous structure of the fiber increases the
porosity of the composite which decreases λ. For example, the
thermal conductivity of CP1 is 0.421 W.m-1.K-1 Whereas the
thermal conductivity of CP5 is only 0.259 W.m-1.K-1, the
decrease is equivalent to a 39% . Furthermore, the fact that the
fibers are embedded in the composite, it produces air and
porosity in the matrix and reduces the density. Thus, the first
advantage of using natural fibers is the lightness of the
composite. This effect has already been noted by the work of
El Azhary et al.[3]. In fact, from the obtained results, we can
clearly assume that the addition of straw fibers could
considerably improve the thermal insulation of composites.
They concluded that the addition of natural fibers improves
the insulation characteristics of composite.
The analysis of the results of Tables (I,II) and the Figure 7,
makes it possible to notice that whatever the used mass
fraction of fiber, the best thermal performances are obtained
with the composite prepared with a liquid consistency of clay.
Its thermal conductivity is significantly lower than the sample
prepared with plastic consistency of clay. It can be explained
by the proportion of voids in the material. Therefore the
volume of air is large (the air still in the pores is a good
insulator) because the amount of mixing water used for
making samples (CLi) is very large in front of the amount
used for (CPi). This results has been confirmed by the study of
Jaffel and al. [13] on plaster, that shows that the porosity
increases with the water to plaster proportion ratio.
3) thermal diffusivity
It is clear from Fig 8. that the thermal diffusivity of the samples
decreases with the increase in the percentage of fibers straw
whatever the used clay consistency. It is also noted that the
diffusivity is influenced by the consistency of clay.
Figure 8. View of thermal diffusivity according to different mass fraction of
straw (liquid and plastic consistency
V. CONCLUSION
the purpose of this work was a thermal characterization of
composite clay-straw. the effect of consistency and mass
fraction of straw on the thermophysical properties was
evaluated. It can be concluded those observations :
x The density of the samples decreases with the increase
in the percentage of fibers straw. It can be explained by
the fact that the fibers are embedded in the composite
and produced air porosity in the matrix and reduces the
density.
x The clay consistency affect significantly the
thermophysical properties of the studied composite.
 x the density of the samples prepared with liquid
consistency doesn't vary a lot with the percentage of
fibers straw.
x The thermal conductivity of the samples decreases
with the increase in the percentage of fibers straw.
x the thermal conductivity and diffusivity of the samples
decrease with the decrease in the density.
x The thermal diffusivity of the samples decreases with
the increase in the percentage of fibers straw.
x The thermophysical properties of the samples prepared
with liquid consistency is more interesting compared
with the samples prepared with plastic consistency

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