Thermal Characterization of Recycled Materials for Building Insulation

Abstract

The building sector is known to have a significant environmental impact, considering that it is the largest contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions of around 36% and is also responsible for about 40% of global energy consumption. Of this, about 50% takes place during the building operational phase, while around 10–20% is consumed in materials manufacturing, transport and building construction, maintenance, and demolition. Increasing the necessity of reducing the environmental impact of buildings has led to enhancing not only the thermal performances of building materials, but also the environmental sustainability of their production chains and waste prevention. As a consequence, novel thermo-insulating building materials or products have been developed by using both locally produced natural and waste/recycled materials that are able to provide good thermal performances while also having a lower environmental impact. In this context, the aim of this work is to provide a detailed analysis for the thermal characterization of recycled materials for building insulation. To this end, the thermal behavior of different materials representing industrial residual or wastes collected or recycled using Sardinian zero-km locally available raw materials was investigated, namely: (1) plasters with recycled materials; (2) plasters with natural fibers; and (3) building insulation materials with natural fibers. Results indicate that the investigated materials were able to improve not only the energy performances but also the environmental comfort in both new and in existing buildings. In particular, plasters and mortars with recycled materials and with natural fibers showed, respectively, values of thermal conductivity (at 20 °C) lower than 0.475 and 0.272 W/(m⋅K), while that of building materials with natural fibers was always lower than 0.162 W/(m⋅K) with lower values for compounds with recycled materials (0.107 W/(m⋅K)). Further developments are underway to analyze the mechanical properties of these materials.

Alternative Heat Systems for Modular Buildings

“…In most cases, the modules are delivered to the assembly site with external finishing, sometimes only in the form of a frame, which is assembled directly on site. (Huang, 2007;Majumder, A., 2021;Sanchez Benjamina, 2022, Zhelykh, V., 2016 Modular house: materials of manufacture the basis of such a building is a wooden, metal or combined frame. Protection against moisture, steam and wind, a layer of sound insulation keep within external protections.…”

Physical and mechanical characteristics of raw jute fibers, threads and diatons

“…Building on the results already available in the literature, the preset paper focuses on the mechanical behavior of jute, which have been also used as internal reinforcement in crude earth bricks [25], JFRP [13] and concrete elements [26][27] [28]. Moreover recycled jute fibers have been used in the preparation of natural insulation materials [29] [30] and the burnt clay bricks reinforced with jute fibers and its thermal properties have been reported in [31].…”

Optimization of Wall Thickness Based on a Comprehensive Evaluation Index of Thermal Mass and Insulation

“…Moreover, Dodoo et al [12] analyzed the relationship between the building envelope economy and building energy consumption from the perspective of the whole building life cycle, and optimized the selection of materials for the economy. Subsequently, Arnas Majumder [13] studied the optimization of recyclable material insulation panels and proved the feasibility of the technological routes.…”