Background
Thermal conductivity of newspaper sandwiched aerated lightweight concrete panel
Ng, S.-C., & Low, K.-S. (2010). Thermal conductivity of newspaper sandwiched aerated lightweight concrete panel. Energy and Buildings, 42(12), 2452–2456. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2010.08.026
Early in the research phase of the project, concrete SIP panels with mixed paper recycling waste slurry components were of interest for testing, with the hope of finding a sequestration tactic for low-grade recyclables. Therefore, this study was helpful to identify strategies to sequester and incorporate insulation materials that would otherwise be trashed (or recycled into lower-grade paper.) While the investigate turned elsewhere eventually, this study pointed the direction towards another research stream that eventually became the focus of the study.
While the manner in which newspaper was affixed to the concrete was difficult to discern from the wording of the experiment, the intention and results were relatively straightforward to identify: newspaper in aerated concrete panels made for insulative panels with recycled materials. Therefore, using recycled materials in structural capacities are worth investigation, though the design of the panels should be of some consideration.
Unusual materials testing: Comparing natural insulating materials
Asdrubali, F., D'Alessandro, F., & Schiavoni, S. (2015). A review of unconventional sustainable building insulation materials. Sustainable Materials and Technologies, 4, 1–17. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.susmat.2015.05.002
“ Strategies for the reduction of heating and cooling demands are focused not only on improving appliance efficiency or modifying citizen life styles, but also on enhancing the insulation properties of building envelopes.” This statement starts the study off, and we see the emphasis on finding materials that are highly efficient and focus on replacement of non-renewable sources of insulative materials. Interestingly, they mention rockwool, which holds a fairly large sector of the market for a non-plastics choice of materials. To be explicit :
”The main goal of the paper is to report a state of the art of innovative thermal and also acoustical insulating materials realized using natural and/or recycled materials whose development is only at an early stage or whose sales are still limited.”
The study defined the units they were using for studying the acoustic properties and thermal properties, and discussed the meaning of the measurements they might find, in addition to taking a look at the entire lifetime of the product (recyclability, re-use cases, upcycling potential, and the systems that make them up.) In addition, they looked at the overall energy used to make that material, and the embodied energy of that product over its lifetime.
The most useful and important part of this project is they had defined the source of the material and the processing methodology before the experiment began; they were just the testers and not the designers of the products as well. This made comparing the materials a flattened perspective; they might suggest the differences between the binding solutions to keep the material together in one unit, but the products were on review, not in design solutions management. Therefore, this was a useful study to pour over and identify information dissemination. The cataloged chart of information and discussion therein was a helpful way to see how to frame the discussion of different materials as insulative panels.
This study was looked at before the materials had been honed into one particular material, and was useful to the conversation of testing multiple materials.
Virgin Plastics and re-use cases to mitigate municipal solid waste plastics demographics
Bhat, G. (2007). PROCESSING POSTCONSUMER RECYCLED PLASTICS. Environmentally Conscious Materials and Chemicals Processing, 357–383. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470168219.ch12
This rather old study looked at the percentage of plastics in municipal solid waste, where they come from, and what kind of plastics are going into the landfill. This was of interest because the inclusion of styrene and polystyrene is directly relevant to the plastics our study included initially, as well as some others. The study identified the number one issue with plastics management in municipal waste: “What is needed for recycling is good infrastructure for collecting, sorting, cleaning, reprocessing, and manufacturing new products for marketing to end users.” Since, there is certainly a supply for plastics to be re-introduced into the market as a material resource, the issue is processing efficiency and demand for those resources.
This study looked at the lifetime value of each product demographic, and generalized lifetimes of use (that is, how long before the product degrades beyond typical use cases and is then disposed of.) The focus on reducing waste is the primary interest of the study: “ The approaches to handle the plastic waste problem are: reduce the amount of waste to be discarded; reuse a significant amount of the waste discarded; and recycle as much of the waste as possible.” From the perspective of municipal waste management, this is an encouraging idea, though the primary issue does indeed seem to be with the facilities that would allow for that extra processing previously mentioned.
This study was helpful in identifying a plastics strategy, and honing in on just plastics. Topical research on the re-use of cardboard in tandem with this study helped identify polystyrene as the material of choice for investigation.
Virgin styrene and insulative use-cases
Orlik-kKzdon, B. (2017). Assessment of the application efficiency of recycling materials in thermal insulations. Construction and Building Materials, 156, 476–485. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2017.08.134
The intent of this study was to look at the use of flexible insulated panels and which material was effective in such a task. Identifying the thermal capacity and thermal shielding capabilities of styrene, among other materials was very useful to selecting styrene to investigate re-use cases with.
The particular material design of the product the experiment was testing was peculiar and highly engineered; the styrene layers were sandwiched between thermally reflective film dotted with micro-holes, and the flexible insulated panel was made with a variety of different insulating, flexible materials to get a broad spectrum of insulation panel types.
Usefully, the study identifies the main focus: “The main guiding principle of the author during the development of the panels was the opportunity to utilize Styrofoam wastes.” This study also identified the design applications, and the variation potential of the panels in a building’s thermal design, noting that the size of the insulation panel could be changed to fit specific needs. The material form was tested in-situ, and did not make up the entirety of the insulation strategy on the ceiling it was tested on, but instead replaced and was supposed to imitate the rockwool insulation already installed. Instead, the styrene outperformed the rockwool installed greatly, by minimizing temperature and humidity swings, and negating changes in weekly weather, keeping the interior space conditioned very effectively. This was very encouraging, as the study was the only styrene-specific insulation testing experiment found during the research phase.
Ng, S.-C., & Low, K.-S. (2010). Thermal conductivity of newspaper sandwiched aerated lightweight concrete panel. Energy and Buildings, 42(12), 2452–2456. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2010.08.026
Early in the research phase of the project, concrete SIP panels with mixed paper recycling waste slurry components were of interest for testing, with the hope of finding a sequestration tactic for low-grade recyclables. Therefore, this study was helpful to identify strategies to sequester and incorporate insulation materials that would otherwise be trashed (or recycled into lower-grade paper.) While the investigate turned elsewhere eventually, this study pointed the direction towards another research stream that eventually became the focus of the study.
While the manner in which newspaper was affixed to the concrete was difficult to discern from the wording of the experiment, the intention and results were relatively straightforward to identify: newspaper in aerated concrete panels made for insulative panels with recycled materials. Therefore, using recycled materials in structural capacities are worth investigation, though the design of the panels should be of some consideration.
Unusual materials testing: Comparing natural insulating materials
Asdrubali, F., D'Alessandro, F., & Schiavoni, S. (2015). A review of unconventional sustainable building insulation materials. Sustainable Materials and Technologies, 4, 1–17. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.susmat.2015.05.002
“ Strategies for the reduction of heating and cooling demands are focused not only on improving appliance efficiency or modifying citizen life styles, but also on enhancing the insulation properties of building envelopes.” This statement starts the study off, and we see the emphasis on finding materials that are highly efficient and focus on replacement of non-renewable sources of insulative materials. Interestingly, they mention rockwool, which holds a fairly large sector of the market for a non-plastics choice of materials. To be explicit :
”The main goal of the paper is to report a state of the art of innovative thermal and also acoustical insulating materials realized using natural and/or recycled materials whose development is only at an early stage or whose sales are still limited.”
The study defined the units they were using for studying the acoustic properties and thermal properties, and discussed the meaning of the measurements they might find, in addition to taking a look at the entire lifetime of the product (recyclability, re-use cases, upcycling potential, and the systems that make them up.) In addition, they looked at the overall energy used to make that material, and the embodied energy of that product over its lifetime.
The most useful and important part of this project is they had defined the source of the material and the processing methodology before the experiment began; they were just the testers and not the designers of the products as well. This made comparing the materials a flattened perspective; they might suggest the differences between the binding solutions to keep the material together in one unit, but the products were on review, not in design solutions management. Therefore, this was a useful study to pour over and identify information dissemination. The cataloged chart of information and discussion therein was a helpful way to see how to frame the discussion of different materials as insulative panels.
This study was looked at before the materials had been honed into one particular material, and was useful to the conversation of testing multiple materials.
Virgin Plastics and re-use cases to mitigate municipal solid waste plastics demographics
Bhat, G. (2007). PROCESSING POSTCONSUMER RECYCLED PLASTICS. Environmentally Conscious Materials and Chemicals Processing, 357–383. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470168219.ch12
This rather old study looked at the percentage of plastics in municipal solid waste, where they come from, and what kind of plastics are going into the landfill. This was of interest because the inclusion of styrene and polystyrene is directly relevant to the plastics our study included initially, as well as some others. The study identified the number one issue with plastics management in municipal waste: “What is needed for recycling is good infrastructure for collecting, sorting, cleaning, reprocessing, and manufacturing new products for marketing to end users.” Since, there is certainly a supply for plastics to be re-introduced into the market as a material resource, the issue is processing efficiency and demand for those resources.
This study looked at the lifetime value of each product demographic, and generalized lifetimes of use (that is, how long before the product degrades beyond typical use cases and is then disposed of.) The focus on reducing waste is the primary interest of the study: “ The approaches to handle the plastic waste problem are: reduce the amount of waste to be discarded; reuse a significant amount of the waste discarded; and recycle as much of the waste as possible.” From the perspective of municipal waste management, this is an encouraging idea, though the primary issue does indeed seem to be with the facilities that would allow for that extra processing previously mentioned.
This study was helpful in identifying a plastics strategy, and honing in on just plastics. Topical research on the re-use of cardboard in tandem with this study helped identify polystyrene as the material of choice for investigation.
Virgin styrene and insulative use-cases
Orlik-kKzdon, B. (2017). Assessment of the application efficiency of recycling materials in thermal insulations. Construction and Building Materials, 156, 476–485. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2017.08.134
The intent of this study was to look at the use of flexible insulated panels and which material was effective in such a task. Identifying the thermal capacity and thermal shielding capabilities of styrene, among other materials was very useful to selecting styrene to investigate re-use cases with.
The particular material design of the product the experiment was testing was peculiar and highly engineered; the styrene layers were sandwiched between thermally reflective film dotted with micro-holes, and the flexible insulated panel was made with a variety of different insulating, flexible materials to get a broad spectrum of insulation panel types.
Usefully, the study identifies the main focus: “The main guiding principle of the author during the development of the panels was the opportunity to utilize Styrofoam wastes.” This study also identified the design applications, and the variation potential of the panels in a building’s thermal design, noting that the size of the insulation panel could be changed to fit specific needs. The material form was tested in-situ, and did not make up the entirety of the insulation strategy on the ceiling it was tested on, but instead replaced and was supposed to imitate the rockwool insulation already installed. Instead, the styrene outperformed the rockwool installed greatly, by minimizing temperature and humidity swings, and negating changes in weekly weather, keeping the interior space conditioned very effectively. This was very encouraging, as the study was the only styrene-specific insulation testing experiment found during the research phase.
Sources
Asdrubali, F., D'Alessandro, F., & Schiavoni, S. (2015). A review of unconventional sustainable building insulation materials. Sustainable Materials and Technologies, 4, 1–17. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.susmat.2015.05.002
Bhat, G. (2007). PROCESSING POSTCONSUMER RECYCLED PLASTICS. Environmentally Conscious Materials and Chemicals Processing, 357–383. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470168219.ch12
Ng, S.-C., & Low, K.-S. (2010). Thermal conductivity of newspaper sandwiched aerated lightweight concrete panel. Energy and Buildings, 42(12), 2452–2456. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2010.08.026
Orlik-kKzdon, B. (2017). Assessment of the application efficiency of recycling materials in thermal insulations. Construction and Building Materials, 156, 476–485. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2017.08.134
Bhat, G. (2007). PROCESSING POSTCONSUMER RECYCLED PLASTICS. Environmentally Conscious Materials and Chemicals Processing, 357–383. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470168219.ch12
Ng, S.-C., & Low, K.-S. (2010). Thermal conductivity of newspaper sandwiched aerated lightweight concrete panel. Energy and Buildings, 42(12), 2452–2456. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2010.08.026
Orlik-kKzdon, B. (2017). Assessment of the application efficiency of recycling materials in thermal insulations. Construction and Building Materials, 156, 476–485. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2017.08.134