Experimental study of thermal performance of straw as a natural insulation in the constructionindustry

Due to the urgent need of housing and increasing population growth and environmental crises, the using of new systems is evident in the construction industry. One of the renewable natural resources that can be effective for achieving these goals is straw which in this study was used as a natural insulation. The applied model is made of four outer walls composed of clay blocks which the blocks of the two walls were filled with compacted straw containing a porosity of %46. In order to measure the amount of waste of heat energy from the walls of the model a four-channel thermometer data logger device model TM-947SD and four surface thermal sensors model TP-04 were used. To measure the heat transferred from the interior to the exterior surface of the walls the internal temperature of the model was set on 100, 200 and 300 ° C using a electrical heater where the time for measuring the surface temperature of the outer walls was 10 hours. The results showed that the use ofstraw as a natural insulation inside clay blocks can be effective to prevent energy loss from the walls.

Keywords:

Building , Enargy , Insulation , Natural insulation , Straw , Wall