This study was conducted to produce a novel construction material by using two different types of waste material consisting of fly ash and fragmented polypropylene (PP). These two materials were mixed on various ratios, and samples with smooth surface were obtained by compressing with 50 kg of weight after each mixture is heated on temperatures of 225°C, 250°C, and 275°C and poured into the molds. Thermal and mechanical tests were performed on the prepared samples. As a result, with the evaluation of two waste materials such as fly ash and PP, (i) the contamination caused by the waste materials will be prevented; (ii) as the fly ash rate increases, the thermal properties of samples produced under 225°C of temperature will be enhanced; (iii) as the fly ash rate increases, the thermal properties of samples produced under 225°C of temperature will be enhanced, and PP ratio and production temperature must be high in order to improve mechanical properties; (iv) the produced composite materials bear the low-cost heat, acoustics, and water insulation, while it will also be possible for the same to be used as coating materials on the walls and tiling in the buildings.

The thermal performance of a novel solar air heater was experimentally studied in this paper. For this aim, a new solar air collector was designed using copper wool on its absorber plate to be a selective surface. Hence, the area of absorber plate was enhanced to absorb much amount of heat energy. The experimental study was conducted for both cases (presence and absence of copper wool on the absorber plate) to determine the effect of copper wool on the thermal efficiency of the collector. The mass flow rate values of the study were 0.035 and 0.044 kg/s. The results pointed out that fluid temperature at outlet of collector with copper wool was increased by about 8 to14%. Therefore, these collectors may be suitable for space heating and drying of food applications. However, copper wool caused more pressure loss through the collector by 40% compared to simple case of collector. The thermal efficiency of the collectors was obtained as 34 to 83% depending on experimental variable parameters. Similarly, effective efficiency of collectors was computed to be 24 to 70%. It is found that efficiency of the collector was improved when using copper wool on the absorber plate as well as increasing mass flow rate of air.

In this paper, the employability of waste Expanded Polystyrene Foam (EPS) as aggregate in production of concrete with apricot resin-added cement has been examined. The EPS ratios were determined as 20, 40, 60 and 80% of the total volume in the mixtures. The amount of the resin in the mixture is 1% of the weight of the total cement and EPS. At the end of 28 days of drying period, the samples were subjected to certain tests to find out their physical properties. It was seen that the porosity had increased 3.0–26.38% times compared to the case with no resin. Similarly, with increasing the EPS ratio in the mixture from 20 to 80%, the density, thermal conductivity and compressive strength had decreased in the percentages of 14.66–17.61%, 15.49–17.43% and 17.58–40.32% respectively. The rate of water absorption of sample was less than 30%. From this results, it is concluded that these materials can be used as partition walls, floorings, ceiling concretes, briquettes or bricks and plaster instead of building-carrier systems such as columns or beams.

This study was aimed to search the possibility of usage of the thermal power plants fly ashes, cement and tragacanth composites in concrete or plaster by investigating their thermal insulation characteristics. The fly ash used in the experiments is supplied from Afşin Elbistan Thermal Power Station. Portland cement (KPC 325) with resin is used as binding and 24 specimens are prepared depending on the percentage of fly ash and tragacanth. In all fly ash, tragacanth and binding mixture, the weight percentages of fly ash are taken as 0, 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50%. The amount of the resin in the mixture is 0.5, 1 and 1.5% of the weight of the total cement and fly ash. 24 samples were prepared and tested to find out the effects of resin on thermal and mechanical properties of fly ash and cement composites. Whereas fly ash percentage increased from 0% to 50%, i) thermal conductivity and compressive strength decreased 19.37–28.62% and 7.66–16.55% respectively as the porosities of the samples increased 18.91–28.62% with the effect of artificial pores generated by 1.5% resin other than the pores generated by fly ash. ii) the new produced samples can be used as partition walls, floorings, ceiling concretes, briquettes or bricks and plaster.