Investigation of thermal insulation properties of biomass composites
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Date
2016
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
International Journal of Technology
Abstract
This paper reports on the investigation of thermal properties of Kapok, Coconut fibre and Sugarcane bagasse composite materials using molasses as binder. The composite materials were moulded into 12 cylindrical samples using Kapok, Bagasse, Coconut fibre, Kapok and Bagasse in the ratios of (70:30; 50:50 and 30:70), Kapok and Coconut fibre in the ratios of (70:30; 50:50 and 30:70), as well as a combination of Kapok, Bagasse and Coconut fibre in ratios of (50:10:40; 50:40:10 and 50:30:20). The sample is 60mm diameter with thickness 10mm – 22mm was compressed at a constant load of 180N using Budenberg compression machine. Thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity tests were carried out using thermocouples to sense the temperatures and read out on a Digital Multimeter MY64 (Model: MBEB094816) while a Digital fluke K/J thermocouple metre PRD-011 (S/NO 6835050) was used to obtain the temperature measurement for diffusivity. It was observed that of all the twelve samples moulded, Bagasse, Kapok plus Bagasse (50:50), has the lowest thermal conductivity of 0.0074, 0.0106, 0.0132 and 0.0127 W/(m-K) respectively and highest thermal resistivity. In this regard, Bagasse has the lowest thermal conductivity followed by Kapok plus Bagasse (50:50), Kapok plus Bagasse plus Coconut fibre (50:40:10) and Kapok plus Coconut fibre (50:50).
Description
Journal Article
Keywords
composite, materials, lagging, thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity, thermal resistivity