## 3 Test Methodology  
### Thermal Property Test  
To evaluate the thermal transmittance (\(U\)-value), thermal conductance (\(C\)-value), thermal resistance (\(R\)-value) and apparent thermal conductivity (\(K\)-value) of eight pieces of concrete panels were determined under specific laboratory environmental conditions using the calorimetric hot box (CHB). The thermal transmittance of a specimen, \(U\) (in W/(m\({}^{2}\) K)), is defined as the air-to-air thermal transmission rate:  
\[U=\frac{Q}{(T_{a,m}-T_{a,c})A} \tag{1}\]  
where \(Q\) is the heat flow rate transmitted through the specimen (W), \(A\) is the specimen area (m\({}^{2}\)), \(T_{a,m}\) is the metering side air temperature (\({}^{\circ}\)C) and \(T_{a,c}\) is the climate side air temperature (\({}^{\circ}\)C). The thermal conductance of a specimen, \(C\) (W/(m\({}^{2}\) K)), is defined as the surface-to-surface thermal transmission rate:  
\[C=\frac{Q}{(T_{s,m}-T_{s,c})A} \tag{2}\]  
where \(T_{s,m}\) is the metering side specimen surface temperature (\({}^{\circ}\)C) and \(T_{s,c}\) is the climate side specimen surface temperature (\({}^{\circ}\)C). The thermal resistance of a specimen, \(R\) ((m\({}^{2}\) K)/W), is defined as the surface-to-surface thermal resistance:  
\[R=\frac{1}{C} \tag{3}\]  
Assuming that the specimen is homogeneous, the apparent thermal conductivity of a specimen, \(K\), (W/(m\(\cdot\)K)), is defined as  
\[K=C\cdot d \tag{4}\]  
Figure 4: Stress–strain curves of the cylinders: (**a**) cylinders with NWM; (**b**) cylinders with LWM. Figure 3: Compressive strength test of the cylinder: (**a**) Test setup; (**b**) columnar cracking (NWM); (**c**) columnar cracking (LWM). where \(d\) is the thickness of the specimen (m). There is no standardized method available to investigate the thermal properties of the TCP. In the current study, a CHB was used in the tests. Figure 5a shows the schematics of the CHB in the thermal transmittance measurement mode. The box had a size of \(1.9\times 2.1\) m (Figure 5a), and there was a small opening (\(0.3\times 0.3\) m) in the middle to mount the testing specimen. The masks (plastic foam insulator sticks), made from the same material as the surrounding panels, were used to fill the spaces between the test specimen and the surround panel opening. Smaller gaps (less than 5.0 mm) between the specimen edge and the surround panel opening were filled with cotton wool for thermal insulation. All joints were sealed by boxing tape to ensure airtightness. The outdoor side surface of the specimen was recessed by 25.0 mm from the outdoor side surface of the surrounding panel. The system consisted of four main components: a metering box surrounded by a guarding box on the indoor side, a climate box on the outdoor side and a surrounding panel holding the test specimen, inserted between the indoor and outdoor side boxes (Figure 5a, [PERSON] et al., 2012) [20]. The global view and the opened CHB are shown in Figure 5b,c, respectively. The effective metering area of a specimen was uniformly divided into \(3\times 3\) grids, and one thermocouple sensor was attached to the center of each grid for specimen surface temperature monitoring (Figure 6a). In total, 18 thermocouples were used for specimen surface temperature monitoring, with nine on each side. As an example, Figure 6 shows pictures of the installation of the specimen. Figure 6a shows the layout of the thermocouple sensors on the specimen surface. The visual effect from indoor and outdoor sides are shown in Figure 6b,c. Figure 5: Calorimetric hot box (CHB) system: (**a**) schematics of the CHB ([PERSON] et al. 2012a) [20]; (**b**) closed hot box; (**c**) opened hot box ([PERSON] et al. 2012a) [20]. The thermal transmittance tests were carried out under the environmental conditions given in Table 3. Before conducting the actual test, the box was calibrated for 8 hours to ensure the testing facility worked well. A specimen was mounted vertically in the opening of a well-insulated surround panel made of extruded polystyrene core material (Figure 6b,c).