Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Insulation Materials Made with Vegetable
Fibres
Xiaoshu Lü, Tao Lu, Olli Lipponen and Martti Viljanen
Abstract Vegetable fibres are finding increasing applications in building industry
due to their economic, energy and environmental sustainability. In view of utilization
of insulation materials made from vegetable fibres for near zero energy buildings, this
chapter presents a summary of physical, mechanical and chemical characteristics of
vegetable fibres incorporating building insulating properties with recommendations
and suggestions. Subsequently, relevant issues of the raw materials and the manu-
facturing processes that lead to certain common characteristics are highlighted. The
greatest challenge in working with vegetable fibres is their large variations in thermal
properties and characteristics dependent on their complex architectures of geomet-
rical structures. Mathematical models are of great importance in understanding and
predicting the thermal performances of the fibres and their global responses in the
building system. Coupled heat and mass transfer through a fibrous insulation in
buildings is therefore studied. The most important vegetable fibrous composites,
properties of the composites and their applications in buildings are briefly reviewed
also. The chapter provides a guide to the fundamentals and latest developments in
building insulation technology for vegetable fibrous materials.
1 Introduction
The EU Directive has set ambitious binding targets for 20 % share of energy from
renewable sources by 2020 (EC
2005
). Among renewable energy sources, the
biggest contribution (63 %) comes from biomass. As biomass is all vegetable-
based
materials
generically,
vegetable-based
natural
materials
are
gaining
