Experimental study of thermal conductivity of leather and carpentry wastes

Abstract This research work is focused on analyzing the potential application of two leather wastes (wet-blue chrome shavings (CS) and leather buffing dust (BD)) and two carpentry wastes (wood shavings (WS) and sawdust (SD)) as alternative building thermal insulation materials. These industrial solid wastes are used as filling materials for hollow specimens and as separation material for cement/sand panels and plasterboards. It was experimentally investigated  the effect  of weight/volume ratio and moisture on thermal conductivity of composite specimens and material wastes. It was shown that conductivity increases with the increase of moisture content. Thermal conductivity of dry material wastes deposited between plasterboards and cement boards was then evaluated. The thermal conductivity measurements show clearly that these industrial solid wastes can compete with other insulating materials.