THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY OF RUBBERIZED GYPSUM BOARD

The disposal of scrap tires is a challenging task and hence an innovative solution to meet these challenges is needed. Extensive work has been done on the utilization of waste tires in a variety of applications in asphalt pavements and concrete. However, previous investigations focus only on the mechanical properties of the rubberized materials, but few on the thermal performance. This is especially true for rubberized gypsum. Limited or no experimental data on the thermal performance of rubberized gypsum board are available. In this study, an experimental program is established to investigate the effect of amount and size of crumb rubber on the thermal properties of gypsum materials. Gypsum is replaced by four different percentage of crumb rubber: 10, 20, 30 and 40% by weight of gypsum and two sizes of crumb rubber (#30, #10_20) to make eight rubberized gypsum specimens. The prepared specimens were tested for thermal conductivity using an apparatus specially designed and constructed for this purpose. The experimental program was concluded by proposing an empirical equation to predict the thermal conductivity of rubberized gypsum board. Results indicated better thermal performance of the gypsum board due to the addition of crumb rubber. Thermal conductivity of the rubberized gypsum was 18-38% lower than the ordinary gypsum. It is concluded that thermal conductivity of rubberized gypsum decreases with the increase of crumb rubber regardless the size of the rubber and that thermal conductivity of mixtures contained 40% of rubber was about 38% lower than conventional mixture when crumb rubber #10_20 was added, while the thermal conductivity reduced by 22% when crumb rubber #30 was added. The study suggested for future work to investigate the effect of air voids size and ratio on the thermal conductivity of rubberized gypsum.