How Reliable is the Thermal Conductivity of Biobased Building Insulating Materials Measured with Hot Disk Device?

Thermal conductivity is of high importance for insulating materials since it strongly influences the thermal performance of the building. Generally, it is recommended to measure this property with steady-state methods like guarded hot plate (GHP) or heat flow meter (HFM). These methods are reliable, but steady-state condition can take a long time to be reached. Therefore, transient methods were developed to speed-up the measurements. For instance, the hot disk transient plane source method is a widely used standard technique (ISO 22007-2) for measuring thermal conductivity of various materials. In the last 20 years, this technique has been applied also to bio-based insulating materials. However, overestimated thermal conductivity (compared to steady state method) are frequently measured. More generally, such differences are also observed for low thermal conductivity materials. The aim of this work is to evaluate the influence of numerous factors to explain the origin of these differences. The factors include the experimental setting parameters, the measurement analysis parameter or even the discrepancies between the theoretical model and the real experimental set-up. The analysis is performed for a light-earth biobased concrete made of raw earth and hemp shiv. Recommendations are proposed in conclusion.