Experimental and Theoretical Analysis on Thermal Conductivity of Fired

Clay Bricks Incorporated With Cigarette Butts

Noor Amira Sarani
1,a
and Aeslina Abdul Kadir
2,b

1
Department of Environmental Engineering and Water Resources
Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM),
86400 Parit Raja, Batu Pahat Johor,
Malaysia
2
Senior Lecturer, Department of Environmental Engineering and Water Resources
Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM),
86400 Parit Raja, Batu Pahat Johor,
Malaysia
a
nramira1987@gmail.com,
b
aeslina@uthm.edu.my
Keywords: Cigarette butts (CBs); Fired Clay Brick; Thermal Conductivity; Density.
Abstract. Currently higher requirements in thermal performance is needed for the quality of
building materials especially fired clay bricks. Thermal conductivity is an important criterion as it
will influences the heat losses from building. The objective of this study is to validate the estimation
value of thermal conductivity by using theoretical value with the experimental work conducted in
the laboratory. The experiment data was collected in order to compare with a theoretical model that
obtained the thermal conductivity value based on it relationship with dry density of fired clay
bricks. Different percentages of CBs (0%, 2.5% and 5.0%) were incorporated into fired clay bricks.
Different heating rates were applied during firing stage, which are 1C/min, 3C/min and 5C/min
respectively. All samples were fired up to 1050C. The experimental work for thermal conductivity
was carried out using the Hot Guarded Plate Method. Meanwhile, the theoretical result was obtained
from the previous study using model developed. Throughout statistical analysis, some trend of
thermal conductivity and dry density were revealed. The analysis results show that as the dry
density decreased, thermal conductivity also decreased.
Introduction
Fired clay brick is one of the most widely used masonry material in engineering field. Due to the
high demand of brick in construction area, many researchers in recent years used to incorporate
waste materials in fired clay bricks to save the used of raw materials and also diminish the disposal
problems [1,2,3]. Addition of waste materials in the production of clay bricks not only offering
lower cost but also lower energy. Using high insulation materials will help to reduce the energy
used in building. The great method to increase the insulation capacity of materials is by adding
porosity to the clay body to form pores. Example of pore formers are sawdust, paper sludge and
coal [4], ashes and sawdust [5], vegetable matters [6], cigarette butts [7], polystyrene, wood dust,
natural cork, glass wool and rock wool [8]. In the meantime, thermal conductivity is one of the
important part as it contributes towards energy saving. It varies over the wide range according to the
types of materials and the engineering application. The materials with low thermal conductivity
have the ability to retard the flow of heat or also known as thermal insulation. A study by previous
researchers has shown that the thermal transmittance of a materials is related to the density [7,9] and
porosity [10,11] of the material used.
In this study, the possibility of recycling cigarette butts (CBs) in fired clay bricks were
investigated. Commonly, CBs is made from 95% of cellulose acetate. Cellulose acetate is the
standard term used to express a variety of acetyl cellulose polymers. Technically, Cellulose acetate
is biodegradable materials. Nevertheless, it only could be degrade under severe biological
circumstances [12,13]. Incorporating CBs in fired clay brick could provide new alternative to reduce
environmental problems. Moreover CBs is quite difficult to recycle because there is no easy

mechanism to assure efficient and economical separation of the butts and appropriate treatment of
the entrapped chemicals [7,14,15]. CBs could act as a pore forming material as it completely burned
during firing and leaves plenty pores inside the brick. The air that entrapped in their pores will act as
non-heat conducting materials and hence its thermal conductivity decreases.
This paper focuses on the comparison of experimental work and theoretical analysis on the
thermal conductivity values of fired clay bricks incorporated with cigarette butts and its relationship
with density.
Material and Methods
In order to measure the experimental value for each sample, the materials and method were
discussed in this section. The theoretical model was obtained from previous study by Kadir [7].

Manufacturing and testing method of Clay Bricks for Experimental Analysis. In this study, two
types of brick were manufactured; CB brick and control brick. As for control brick, only clay soil
was mixed with suitable amount of water to produce the brick. After the soil was completely mixed,
the sample was pressed into mould size of 225 mm x 110 mm x 65 mm. Brick samples were dried at
room temperature for 24 hours, followed by oven drying at 105C for 24 hours. All the brick
samples were fired at three different heating rates; 1
o
C/min, 3
o
C/min, and 5
o
C/min. The same
methods as previously explained were applied in CB brick manufacturing. The only thing that
differs is the addition of CBs with 2.5% and 5.0% percentage by weight.
The experimental testing for thermal conductivity of each sample was using Hot Guarded Plate
Method accordance to BS EN ISO 8990 [16]. This device can measure the thermal conductivity of
material when a layer of materials of known thickness and area heated from one side by an output.
The experiment was conducted for 100 minutes for each sample and the data were recorded every
one minute. The results obtained from the experimental work were calculated using Fouriers Law
as in Eq. 2. From Fouriers Law;

(1)

Therefore,

(2)

Where the thermal conductivity, k can be defined as the heat flow, Q per surface area A which
is generated by the temperature gradient (T) through the sample with thickness (L). Both factors
are connected by the thermal conductivity (k).
Theoretical modeling for Thermal Conductivity. According to Kadir [7], the developed
prediction model in Eq. 3 was developed based on the results from the different types of brick,
concrete and aggregates. The equation as plotted in Fig. 1, gave the highest coefficient of
determination, R
2
value of 0.739 in a regression analysis. The equation was obtained from the
relationship between thermal conductivity and density plotted in the prediction model and will be
used to estimate the thermal conductivity value of CB Brick by using the dry density obtained from
the experimental work.

T = 0.0004D
d
0.1199 (3)

Where T = Thermal Conductivity (W/m.K)
D
d
= Dry Density (kg/m
3
)


Fig. 1 Relationship of thermal conductivity with dry density value
Result and Discussion
Experimental and theoretical results of each sample fired at 1050C were summarize in Table 1.
The data were analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software. From
Table 1, the experimental results revealed that the dry density decreased steadily with an increased
in the amount of CBs. With the highest percentage of CBs content added, thermal conductivity
showed the best performance.
Meanwhile, a comparison of relationship between thermal conductivity data obtained from
experimental work and those obtained from previous study is reported in Fig. 2. There are strong
correlation (R
2
=0.739) between both series of data with dry density which indicates that the lowest
dry density can affect the thermal conductivity values. There are significant relationship detectable
between both series of data.
Another additional analysis was performed by using multi linear regression where thermal
conductivity as dependent variable and dry density as independent variable. Thermal conductivity
values through experimental work were chosen as it produced greater significance. Table 2 shown
the report of unstandardized (B), standardized () and correlation coefficient (R and R
2
), as well as
probability level (p) for dry density. From the report, as the p value increased, can be reduced.

Table 1
Summary of the experimental result
Properties Heating Rates / Percentages of CBs Addition by Weight
1C/min 3C/min 5C/min
0% 2.5% 5.0% 0% 2.5% 5.0% 0% 2.5% 5.0%
Degree of Firing (C) 1050
Dry Density (g/cm
3
) 2.372 2.142 2.041 2.358 2.108 1.970 2.254 2.147 2.064
Experimental result
of Thermal
Conductivity
(W/m.K)
0.970 0.860 0.820 0.881 0.874 0.768 0.900 0.887 0.791
Theoretical result of
Thermal
Conductivity
(W/m.K)
0.829

0.737

0.696

0.824

0.723

0.668

0.782

0.739

0.706



Fig. 2 Relationship of thermal conductivity with dry density value, values collected from
experimental work in this study and those from previous study

Table 2
Summary of the multi linear regression analysis
Model Unstandardized
Coefficients
Standard
Coefficient
t Sig. 95% Confidence Interval
for B
B Std.
Error

( Constant) .042 .180
.865
.232 .823 -.384 .468
Dry Density
(kg/m
3
)
.000 .000 4.556 .003 .000 .001
Multiple Correlation Coefficients : R = 0.865; R
2
= 0.748; p = 0.003
Conclusion
A comparison of the correlation between the thermal conductivity results collected from
experimental work and those obtained from previous study highlighted that the dependence of
thermal conductivity can be describes by the significance of dry density. Throughout the statistical
analysis, the relationship among the thermal conductivity and dry density were revealed. With a
strong correlation between thermal conductivity and dry density, as the dry density decreased, the
thermal conductivity also decreased and act as a insulator. On the other hand, the model was
developed by using relationship between dry density and thermal conductivity. Throughout
statistical analysis, significant relationship between dry density and thermal conductivity were
revealed. It shown that as the dry density value decreased, the thermal conductivity value will be
decreased as well. Furthermore comparison of the results obtained from the developed model and
experimental work resulted less than 0.005.
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