Abstract

The adobe structure is constructed by using low energy materials like adobe soil and sand etc. Adobe and cob are terms often used to describe sun dried clay materials. Adobe is a Spanish word derived from the Arabic atob, which literally means sun dried bricks.This paper investigated the thermal conductivity of Adobe mixed with Quartz in view of their availability usage as building materials. The thermal conductivities of disc made from Adobe-Quartz chippings were determined, the values obtained were between 0.57Wm-1k-1 and 0.91Wm-1k-1, and these values could be used to identify Adobe-Quartz as one of the engineering materials used in building construction, adopted to reduce the temperature of buildings without the need for power consumption. Consequently, the aim of this study is to test the usefulness of applying selected Adobe-Quartz to improve thermal performance and to reduce energy consumption of residential buildings in hot arid climate setting, Mubi, Adamawa State, Nigeria. Energy reduction was achieved by making the Adobe-Quartz into bricks used as aggregates in walls. Adobe-Quartz was made in disc form of the same thickness and diameter, by proportions of Adobe to Quartz (90:10, 85:15, 80:20), i.e. 10 samples for each ratio. The average values of the thermal conductivities were between 0.07Wm-1k-1 and 0.93Wm-1k-1, the least thermal conductivity value was 0.57Wm-1k- 1 for the ratio of (90:10). MATLAB 7.0 and EXCEL software were used in the various computations. An average correlation coefficient, R2 of 0.75 was existed between Adobe-Quartz ratios to thermal conductivities.

Authors and Affiliations