A COMPARATIVE HEAT TRANSFER EXAMINATION OF INDIGENOUS NATURAL FIBERS FOR BUILDING INSULATION USING A DYNAMIC WALL SIMULATOR

Abstract

The objective of this thesis was to evaluate natural indigenous fibers as potential, cost-effective, alternatives for building insulation. The natural fibers used were Timothy grass, wheat straw, and coconut fiber. A well-calibrated dynamic wall simulator was used for the experimental evaluation under both transient and steady-state heat transfer processes. The experiments centered on comparing the thermal performance of the indigenous natural fibers to a well-known and widely-used building insulation product, namely extruded polystyrene (XPS). The indigenous natural fibers were evaluated at densities of 30, 45, and 65 kg/m3. R-values were calculated for the natural fibers based on the experiments and mathematical expressions of R-value as a function of fiber material density were developed. The experimental results showed that wheat straw at a density of 65 kg/m3 performed within 6% of the XPS insulation. Extrapolations via the mathematical expressions indicated that Timothy grass would perform identically to the XPS insulation if the grass were used at a density of 68.3 kg/m3. The cost, however, would be about 32 times less than the XPS insulation.