Abstract
Hemp concrete is an ecological bio-based building construction material, with several environmental benefits. It is made up of a lime matrix with hemp fiber inclusions, which makes it very heterogeneous and hygroscopic. Hemp concrete has a relatively low density which results in a poor thermal conductivity and good thermal insulation.
The aim of this paper is to study the morphological and thermal behavior of hemp concrete when subjected to normal and severe temperatures, such as in the case of fire, or aging studies.
Various non-destructive imaging techniques were used, to optimize the morphological and thermal characterization of hemp concrete, using specialized and innovative processing approaches.
First, thermal solicitations were applied to hemp concrete using thermal tomography, which involves applying thermal stress while performing the scans (in-situ). To produce heat flow, an original tomographic plate is employed, and temperatures ranged from −20 ℃ to 160 ℃. The resulting 3D reconstructions of the real volumes of materials were investigated using Digital Volume Correlation to quantify the resulting deformation for the different studied thermal levels.
After that, a Keyence optical microscope was used to track the interface morphological changes when high temperatures reaching 600 ℃ were applied.
The obtained results showed an accentuated anisotropic behavior of hemp concrete when subjected to high temperatures. Big differences in the hemp fibers and cement matrix were identified when analyzing the three-dimensional strain fields. In addition, a particular attention was devoted to the study of the interfaces between the hemp fibers and the cement matrix.
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Hachem, C.E., Moussa, J., Abahri, K. (2023). Thermal Study of Hemp Concrete Behavior when Subjected to High Temperatures by X-ray Microtomography. In: Jędrzejewska, A., Kanavaris, F., Azenha, M., Benboudjema, F., Schlicke, D. (eds) International RILEM Conference on Synergising Expertise towards Sustainability and Robustness of Cement-based Materials and Concrete Structures. SynerCrete 2023. RILEM Bookseries, vol 43. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-33211-1_118
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-33211-1_118
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