THERMAL PROPERTIES OF SOME SELECTED MATERIALS USED AS CEILING IN BUILDING
ABSTRACT
This work investigates the thermal properties of Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC), Plaster of Paris (POP), asbestos, and cardboard commonly used as ceiling materials. The steady state method for Lee’s disc apparatus was employed to determine these thermal properties which include, thermal conductivity, thermal resistivity, thermal diffusivity, thermal absorptivity and density. The obtained results of thermal conductivity showed that, POP ceiling has the highest value of 0.1314 while card board has the least value of 0.0851 where as PVC (0.1083) and asbestos (0.1068) fall in between them. Also the results of thermal conductivity of this research ranged from (0.08510.1314w) which corresponds to the previous work of the researchers. Hence all these materials are good insulators. The thermal resistivity of these ceiling samples showed that, the card board ceiling has highest value of 11.7509, while POP has the least value of 7.6103, the asbestos value (9.3633) and PVC value (9.2336) fall in between them. The results of the ceiling samples for thermal diffusivity showed that PVC ceiling has the highest value of) while asbestos ceiling has the least value of 6.0 x), where the POP value of 1.20 x) and card board value of 8.0) fall in between them. Also results of thermal absorptivity of these ceiling materials showed that, the card board ceiling has the highest thermal absorptivity of 21.319 while PVC has the least thermal absorptivity of 7.573, where the POP (17.407) and asbestos ( 15.070) fall in between them. The density results of these ceiling materials were showed that, the POP has the highest density value of 979.84 kg/m3 while the P V C has the least density value of 203.59 kg/m3, where the asbestos ( 824.13kg/m3) and card board (645.81 kg/m3) densities value fall in between them. The results obtained showed based on comparison that, PVC and asbestos may be better materials for building insulation since they have better thermal efficiency. Card board among the samples used was found to have the least thermal efficiency base on the comparison where as POP falls in between them. Thus, this research may provide guide for many users of the materials.
