Simulating the Thermal Behavior of Compressed Earth Brick Walls

Abstract The production of conventional bricks has negative impact on the environment due to CO2 emissions. Therefore, the use of alkali-activated by-product materials as partial or full replacement of cement has been promising in producing eco-friendly compressed earth bricks for sustainable construction. This research aims to simulate the thermal behavior of an office building prototype composed of eco-friendly compressed earth brick (CEB) walls using Design Builder software to investigate the impact of CEB walls on the indoor thermal comfort, total energy consumption and CO2 emissions. In addition to investigate the influence of the type and thicknesses of walls, and thickness of expanded polystyrene (EPS) insulating layer on the total energy consumption and (CO2) emissions. The results indicated that using walls of compressed earth bricks (CEB) made by alkali-activated ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS) as soil stabilizer with full replacement of cement is promising for reducing the total energy consumption and CO2 emissions with competitive compressive strength to those stabilized by cement. The results also revealed the noticeable effect of the type and thicknesses of walls in addition to the thickness of EPS insulating layer in reducing the total energy consumption and CO2 emissions. This reduction reached about 21–25% for different wall types of thickness 120 mm when EPS thicknesses increased up to 50 mm compared to the same walls without EPS.