The insulated concrete form (ICF) system is now accepted in generality establishments in the developed countries and it has become part of many building codes. It is used because of its advantages as light weight and energy efficiency. This study presents an extensive study on the behavior of conventional bearing walls such as, bricks, blocks, and concrete in comparison to insulated concrete form (ICF) Walls. Eight walls (1200 X 800 mm) of bricks, concrete, blocks and ICF with different width (120 and 250 mm) were built up and tested experimentally. The main objective of this study is to compare the effect of using foam in ICF wall and the traditional system of bearing walls. The experimental results proved that ICF is a good alternative compared with the traditional system of bearing walls. Using ICF as intelligent buildings compared to traditional building materials will lead to a perfect system that can improve building comfort and economic efficiency.
Keywords : ICF, Foam, Bearing Walls.