This study presents the results of a set of tests for the determination of the thermal conductivity coefficient of samples extracted from boards of Insulation Corkboard (ICB) withdrawn from the usual production of the seven portuguese factories. These tests were carried out as a part of an interlaboratorial study integrated in the standardization program for cork of the sub-comission 4 of The National Technical Committee of Standardization (CT 16), in which participated the Cork Technological Centre (CTCOR), the National Laboratory of Civil Enginneering (LNEC) and the National Institute of Engineering and Industrial Technology (INETI). The purpose of this study aimed to contribute to the definition of the "declared value" of this thermal property to be included in the future European Standard (EN) specifying the characteristics of ICB for thermal insulating of buildings which is in preparation in the 88 Th Technical Committee of The European Committee of Standardization CEN/TC-88 (CEN 1995). In view of the results, the declared value of thermal conductivity proposed was 0.045 W/m. °C.

This paper reports the first classroom experience using the package Heat Transfer 1.0 (Maliska et al, 1997) in an introductory heat conduction course. The key objective in conceiving Heat Transfer 1.0 was to stimulate the physical reasoning in heat transfer, bringing to the students the possibility of having intimacy with the flow of heat in physical situations where this flow is more complex than the usual 1D patterns presented in normal textbooks. Therefore, the basic idea behind its conceptual form was to have more than merely a tool to help the student to solve the heat conduction equation. The key objective was to create a tool that allows students to formulate new problems and to speculate about its physical behavior. More, the software should appear attractive and easy-to-use, becoming part of the students toolbox, and not seen as “one more package” whose use is compulsory in the course. Student’s opinions taken through a questionnaire submitted to them just after the end of the course revealed that they found the software easy-to-use and that it broadened their knowledge of conduction heat transfer.