Lifespan Determination of Biobased Insulation
conference paper
The use of biobased insulation materials (BBIM) is one of the strate gies to reach European climate goals. The Netherlands has a focus on wide-scale application of straw as insulation material. One of the bottlenecks for large-scale application of BBIM is uncertainty regarding their durability. Accelerated aging testing has the potential to remove these uncertainties. The literature proposes various methods of accelerated aging, but provides no consensus on the relation between accelerated degradation mechanisms and the real-life performance of BBIM. This study aims to relate observable physical degradation of individual straw fibers to the thermal conductivity of the BBIM, through comparing scan ning electron microscopy photos and thermal conductivity values of 1) new straw, prior to the application as BBIM, and 2) straw obtained from buildings that has been applied as BBIM for a time between 10 and 25 years. The findings in dicate that the physical damage observed in the fibers is mainly due to the pro cessing of the fibers (harvesting, shredding) than their use as BBIM. Differences in the type of straw (wheat or barley) seem to have a marginal effect on the ob served differences. More data is to be obtained to relate observable degradation to performance, creating the foundation for accelerated aging methods.
TNO Identifier
1028855
Source title
International Conference of biobased Building Materialen’ 2025
Pages
1-13
Files
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