ORIGINAL PAPER Strength and thermal conductivity in lightweight building materials E. Yas ¸ar Æ Y. Erdog ˘an Received: 7 November 2007 / Accepted: 10 April 2008 / Published online: 23 August 2008 Ó Springer-Verlag 2008 Abstract Pumice can be used in bricks and concrete to produce lightweight building materials with high porosity, high thermal insulation and resistance to earthquake motion. The paper presents ongoing research to design a structural lightweight concrete and brick using Nevs ¸ehir pumice. The testing of four different brick types is repor- ted. The density, thermal conductivity, compressive and tensile strengths and Young’s elastic modulus indicated that these lightweight materials had significant advantages as a construction material in earthquake-prone areas. Keywords Nevs ¸ehir pumice  Lightweight concrete  Brick  Thermal conductivity  Mechanical properties Re ´sume ´ Les ponces peuvent e ˆtre utilise ´es dans les bri- ques et les be ´tons afin d’obtenir des mate ´riaux de construction le ´gers, pre ´sentant une forte porosite ´, un bonne isolation thermique et une re ´sistance correcte aux sollici- tations se ´ismiques. L’article pre ´sente des recherches en cours pour de ´finir un mate ´riau de construction le ´ger utili- sant les ponces de Nevs ¸ehir. Des essais re ´alise ´s sur quatre diffe ´rents types de mate ´riaux sont pre ´sente ´s. La densite ´, la conductivite ´ thermique, les re ´sistances a ` la compression et a ` la traction ainsi que le module d’e ´lasticite ´ de Young ont e ´te ´ mesure ´s et ont montre ´ que ces mate ´riaux le ´gers pre ´sentaient de bonnes caracte ´ristiques comme mate ´riau de construction pour des zones soumises aux se ´ismes. Mots cle ´s Ponce de Nevs ¸ehir  Be ´ton le ´ger  Brique  Conductivite ´ thermique  Proprie ´te ´s me ´caniques Introduction New technology involves using lightweight construction materials, which, compared to concrete and brick, have a lower thermal conductivity coefficient and lower bulk density but higher strength values and resistance to earth- quake motion. Its use in the building sector may therefore provide energy savings and prevent environment pollution. Pumice is one material, which can be used to produce lightweight concrete (LWC) and lightweight brick (LWB), and hence minimise the dead weight of a building struc- ture, which has the advantage of reducing the risk due to earthquake motion/acceleration. Because of the air voids in lightweight aggregate, it has the obvious advantage of a higher strength/weight ratio, better tensile strain capacity and lower coefficient of thermal expansion, as well as superior heat and sound insulation characteristics (Topcu 1997; Al-Khaiat and Haque 1998;Kılıc ¸ et al. 2003). Alduaij et al. (1999) studied LWC in coastal areas by using different density aggregates, including lightweight crushed bricks, lightweight expanded clay and normal- weight gravel without the use of natural fine aggregates (no-fines concrete). They obtained a LWC with a 22 MPa cylinder compressive strength and 1.52 Mg/m 3 dry density at 28 days. Rossignolo et al. (2003) reported the results of structural LWC (SLWC) made with expanded clay. In their study, the amount of cement varied from 440 to 710 kg/m 3 . They E. Yas ¸ar (&) Department of Mining Engineering, Cukurova University, 01330 Adana, Turkey e-mail: eyasar@cukurova.edu.tr Y. Erdog ˘an General Directorate of Mineral Research and Exploration, MTA, 06520 Ankara, Turkey 123 Bull Eng Geol Environ (2008) 67:513–519 DOI 10.1007/s10064-008-0166-x