The improvement of the thermal insulation of buildings is one of the most effective ways to achieve energy savings, through the reduction of hot and cold losses through walls. Driven by sustainability, there is a growing interest in manufacturing thermal insulations from biomasses, often named ‘bio-based insulations’. Agricultural straws, such as wheat, corn, or rice straws, in raw form have been used as insulation materials for a long time because of their hollow structure, low cost, low density, and low thermal conductivity.

The aim of this study was to investigate the thermal conductivity of natural fiber reinforced polymer composites (NFRP) as potential structural materials. As a natural fiber, Bermuda grass seeds, conifer cones and pinecones are selected. The matrix comprised Vinyl ester resin. The mechanical properties (tensile strength and Young’s modulus) and fractography analysis were investigated in our previous study (Dikici B. M. S.-H., 2019).

In the current study, the thermal conductivity was probed using transient plane source technique implemented in the TPS 2500S Thermal Constants Analyzer.  The addition of 9% Bermuda fibers  yielded  a decrease of approximately 19.3% in thermal conductivity compared to that of the neat epoxy. With the addition of 9% nano cellulose fibers, a decrease of approximately 40.7 % in thermal conductivity was observed in the nanocellulose/vinyl ester resin composite compared to the neat vinyl ester samples.


Thermal Conductivity Study of Biomass Reinforced Polymer Composites

Division / Sponsors: 
Heat Transfer Division (HTD), Fluids Engineering Division (FED)

Heat Transfer Summer Conference
Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/HT/HT2020/volume/83709

18th International Conference on Nanochannels, Microchannels, and Minichannels
Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/ICNMM/ICNMM2020/volume/83693

Fluids Engineering Division Summer Meeting
Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/FEDSM/FEDSM2020/volume/83716

HT-ICNMM2020 - Virtual Conference, SHTC - Virtual Conference, FEDSM2020 - Virtual Conference

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