Abstract
The paper examines first the fundamentals of the heat and noise protection of buildings. Then it presents briefly three methods for the estimation of thermal properties of building materials, i.e., the average principle, the spherical model, and the estimation of thermal conductivity from the unit weight of the material, and one method for the estimation of the transmission loss of sound from the weight of the wall. Formulas are also presented for the relationship between composition and unit weight of concrete. The utilizations of the graphs and formulas are illustrated by simplified numerical examples. Finally, possible problems are touched upon that a construction engineer may face when using lightweight aggregates.