The effective filler for thermal insulation materials from organic materials

Abstract

Last decade shows an intensive growth of industry of building materials from renewable resources. For the production of such building products, binders (cement, lime, gypsum, etc.) and organic raw materials (straw, wood bark, wood sawdust and fibre hemp shives) are implemented. It has been noted that such organic materials are characterized by sufficient thermal properties; therefore, straw, wood bark, wood sawdust and fibre hemp shives can be used as effective thermal insulating fillers for building envelopes. The materials made of such raw materials are easily utilized at the end of their life cycle. The purpose of this work is to investigate the thermal conductivity and determine combustion heat by the flammability class for the prepared composites. It has been determined that, depending on the type of organic material, the bulk density can vary from ~48 kg/m3 to ~216 kg/m3. Thermal conductivity changes from 0.0453 W/(m·K) to 0.0586 W/(m·K). The results from combustion heat test show similar results for all the fillers ~18 Mj/kg. The obtained numerical values of properties for composites show that straw shives, wood bark, wood sawdust and fibre hemp shives can be used as effective fillers for thermal insulation materials.