Coupled thermal and moisture expansion of porous materials

A method for measuring the coupled influences of temperature and moisture on the linear thermal expansion of porous materials is proposed. The method is based on length measurements using a comparator and on application of the superposition principle to the relative elongation due to temperature and moisture changes. The application of the proposed method is illustrated on the heat-insulating building material Dekalit P. Measured results show a significant influence of the rate of moistening and drying as well as the moistening method itself on the linear expansion. The differences in the linear moisture expansion coefficient caused by these effects can achieve several hundreds percent. The thermal expansion behavior of Dekalit P is found to be regular, the linear thermal expansion coefficient being constant in the temperature range of -30 to 180°C Generally, for Dekalit P, the influence of moisture on linear expansion is more important than the influence of temperature.Paper presented at the Twelfth Symposium on Thermophysical Properties, June 19 24, 1994, Boulder, Colorado, U.S.A.