Nanomaterials’ Influence on the Performance of Thermal Insulating Mortars—A Statistical Analysis

Abstract

This research provides a statistical analysis of the mechanical and physical properties of thermal insulating mortars developed in the laboratory and by the industry with and without the incorporation of nanomaterials. This was evaluated by carrying out a uni and bivariate analysis, principal components and factor analysis, cluster analysis, and the application of regression models. The results show that it is possible to find associations between these mortars’ properties, but also how these formulations’ development can be approached in the future to achieve better overall performance. They also show that the use of nanomaterials, namely silica aerogel, significantly improved the mortars’ thermal insulation capabilities, allowing us to obtain mortar formulations with thermal conductivities below the values presented by classic thermal insulating materials. Therefore, with this investigation, other researchers can support their product-development choices when incorporating nanomaterials to reduce mortars’ thermal conductivities, increasing their production efficiency, overall multifunctionality, and sustainability.

Keywords

• multivariate statistical analysis
• nanomaterials
• silica aerogel
• thermal conductivity
• thermal mortar