Experimental characterization of thermal and hygric properties of hemp concrete with consideration of the material age evolution

The incorporation of plant crops in construction materials offers very good hygrothermal performance to the building, ensuring substantial environmental and ecological benefits. This paper focuses on studying the evolution of hygrothermal properties of hemp concrete over age (7, 30 and 60 days). The analysis is done with respect to two main hygric and thermal properties, respectively: sorption isotherms, water vapor permeability, thermal conductivity and heat capacity. In fact, most of these parameters are very susceptible to change function of the age of the material. This influence of the aging is mainly due to the evolution of the microstructure with the binder hydration over time and the creation of new hydrates which can reduces the porosity of the material and consequently modify its properties. All the tested hemp concrete samples presented high moisture storage capacity and high-water vapor permeability whatever the age of such hygroscopic material. These hygric parameters increase significantly for high relative humidity requiring more consideration of such variability during the modeling of coupled heat and mass transfer within the material. By the same, the thermal conductivity and heat capacity tests highlighted the impact of the temperature and hygric state of the studied material.