Evaluation of thermal and energy consumption behavior of novel foamed copper slag based geopolymer masonry blocks

The building sector is focused on adopting passive design strategies to reduce the energy needs of the building envelope. Currently there has been lack of research related to the understanding of thermal and energy efficiency performance of foamed geopolymer based material. In this regard, this research provides a solution of thermally efficient wall material developed from copper industry by-product (copper slag). All the performance criteria (i.e. physical, mechanical and thermal) of the developed foamed copper slag geopolymer (FCSG) blocks as a building block was found to be in compliance with the performance of standard commercial product (i.e., autoclave aerated block). Further, the numerical analysis of the developed FCSG material is performed and the conjugate heat transfer through three different solid-wall zones to the fluid domain is perceived. The incompressible conjugate heat transfer solver is developed in the open-source computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tool OpenFOAM to perform the present numerical analysis. It is noted that the temperature in the fluid zone for the FCSG layer attained less than 300 (K) however, for the red clay bricks it reaches 302 (K). Hence, the thermal efficiency of the FCSG incorporated insulation layer reduces the heat transmission from outdoor to indoor, consequently improving the comfortable environment of occupants. Further, the developed blocks were subjected to simulation study using eQuest tool to understand the influence of its thermal characteristics on energy demands. The study found that the yearly energy savings was found to be 7.5% in comparison to commercially available clay bricks. Also, the cost savings can reach up to 8.94% during the peak summer month and 7.4% annually. Thus, the developed blocks emphasize waste utilization, providing better indoor thermal for occupant and energy efficiency benefits for end-users. Thus, achieving overall sustainability as a building envelope component.