Thermal Study of Traditional Gypsum Plaster Brick Prototypes: The Case of Ouargla

Abstract This research is oriented towards the valorisation of local materials and the reduction of energy consumption with the aim of judicious use of these materials. In front of the world economic crisis, that also affects our region, it is necessary to solve the problem of pollution and enable important links for the balance with nature. In Algeria, buildings are very inefficient in terms of energy use and therefore remain a major source of energy consumption. To reduce this consumption and improve the thermal comfort of a building and save energy, it is necessary to use particularly high-performance materials that ensure good thermal insulation. The objective set in this work is to study the thermal behaviour of walls of different compositions, in order to identify those that allow the greatest energy savings in the case of air-conditioning for the Saharan context. The results proved that it is possible to use local materials to reduce energy consumption by 50% and save energy, improve the performance of the construction, and ensure the thermal comfort of buildings.