Assessment of Thermal Conductivity of Mortar with a Novel Carbon Based Nano-material

The paper presents the preliminary results in terms of thermal conductivity of mortar made with a novel carbon based nano-tube. The advantage of the newly developed nano-tube resides in the fact that it does not coalesce during the mixing process and therefore the need for using sodium-dodecyl sulphate (SDS) surfactant was eliminated. For the purpose of the research, three mix proportions were designed: one reference mix and two mixes incorporating nano-materials in different percentages. The effect of the carbon nano-tubes on the thermal conductivity of standard mortar specimens was assessed at the ages of 7, 14, 21 and 28 days. The use of carbon nano materials lead to an increase of the thermal conductivity of mortar. This could prove as a viable solution in reducing the overall material consumption yet keeping the same quality of the indoor environment. A prediction model was developed based on neural-network approach and the predicted results match very well the experimentally obtained data.