Thermal Insulation Materials in Architecture: A Comparative Test Study with Aerogel and Rock Wool

Thermal insulation has great potential to reduce energy consumption in buildings. This study aims to provide a general perspective by addressing the thermal insulation materials used throughout the history of the construction industry and to understand the current situation with developing technology. The literature review was used as a method in the study. The insulation values of current thermal insulation products were investigated and compared. An energy loss and gain analysis were carried out on the Revit model to understand the difference between the widely used rock wool and a nanotechnology product, aerogel-added thermal insulation material. The results of the study show that thermal insulation materials produced with nanotechnology examined have lower thermal conductivity coefficients compared to other thermal insulation materials. According to the analysis carried out on the Revit model, the thermal insulation material with aerogel provides 8% savings in cooling loads compared to the use of rock wool. Developing competitive and sustainable materials is of the utmost importance. The literature review suggests that new composite insulators can be produced by combining suitable materials.

The Optimum Thickness of Rockwool as Roof Thermal Insulation: An Experimental and Numerical Study

Now a days, the global warming has increased the temperature in the environment that forced the building occupant to get assisting from the air condition to reduce the heat tension inside the building, this could increase the electricity bill amount. The aim of this study is to measure the optimum thickness of Rockwool insulation to experimentally and numerically to reduce the heating load inside the buildings. Two devices have been used through this research, Infrared Thermometer to measure profile temperature of the walls along with VELOCICALC to measure the air temperature and air velocity. Three different layers of Rockwool insulation have been applied on the roof of wooden room. The data present the two layers thickness of Rockwool is the best selection to reduce the heating load inside the room, the differential between outside and inside is 0.9 °C, the Rockwool of one layer reduced only 0.5 °C and the maximum thickness with three layers reduced only 1 °C, which is not much effective compared to the two layers but even more costly. CFD analysis shows agreement with the experimental result. The results shows if the dimensions of a UCSI lecture room is to be considered, then applying Rockwool insulation with a thickness of 100 mm would cost around RM 1520 as a UCSI lecture room is of 8 m width and 9 m length. However, two layers of Rock wool insulation could save around 29.30% of ROI per annum.

New circular building composite material to upcycle building wastes

A new class of sustainable building composite materials is developed, made out of recycled fibers waste, of sand from crushing inert waste and of lime. The fibers come from abundant and available bio-based or mineral fibers such as cellulose, glass wool, or rock wool. The crushing sand comes from inert building waste and is used instead of river sand which is a resource under shortage. Lime is, like the other two constituents, available locally. The targeted performance is minimizing the environmental footprint compared to the current building materials available on the market in terms of CO2 emissions and grey energy consumption over the entire life cycle. Additional specific objectives are a lifetime up to 60 years, the incorporation of at least 75% recycled or end-of-cycle materials and a high potential of further reuse or recycling. These performances must be optimized under all the structural, thermal and durability constraints of specific building applications. A test campaign has proved the energy-efficient nature of the processing and excellent potential in terms of insulation, fire resistance and mechanical strength, for materials containing a rate of paper fibers larger than 50%.

Waste Mineral Wool and Its Opportunities—A Review

Massive waste rock wool was generated globally and it caused substantial environmental issues such as landfill and leaching. However, reviews on the recyclability of waste rock wool are scarce. Therefore, this study presents an in-depth review of the characterization and potential usability of waste rock wool. Waste rock wool can be characterized based on its physical properties, chemical composition, and types of contaminants. The review showed that waste rock wool from the manufacturing process is more workable to be recycled for further application than the post-consumer due to its high purity. It also revealed that the pre-treatment method—comminution is vital for achieving mixture homogeneity and enhancing the properties of recycled products. The potential application of waste rock wool is reviewed with key results emphasized to demonstrate the practicality and commercial viability of each option. With a high content of chemically inert compounds such as silicon dioxide (SiO2), calcium oxide (CaO), and aluminum oxide (Al2O3) that improve fire resistance properties, waste rock wool is mainly repurposed as fillers in composite material for construction and building materials. Furthermore, waste rock wool is potentially utilized as an oil, water pollutant, and gas absorbent. To sum up, waste rock wool could be feasibly recycled as a composite material enhancer and utilized as an absorbent for a greener environment.

Ultrafine bubble water mitigates plant growth in damaged soil

Water containing ultrafine/nano bubbles (UFBs) promoted the growth of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) in soil damaged by cultivation of tomato in the previous year or bacterial wilt-like disease, and also promoted the growth of lettuce (Lactuca sativa) when lettuce was grown in the soil damaged by repeated cultivation of lettuce. On the other hand, UFB supply did not affect plant growth in rock wool or healthy soil. Furthermore, the growth of lettuce was not affected by UFB water treatment in the soil damaged by the cultivation of tomato. UFB water partly suppressed the growth of the pathogen of bacteria wilt disease, Ralstonia solanacearum in vitro. These data suggest that UFB water is effective to recover the plant growth from soil damage.

The Impact of Arid Climate on the Indoor Thermal Comfort in the South-East of Morocco

The main objective of this work is to study the heat transfer through an administrative building’s envelope in Errachidia City in Morocco. A numerical simulation based on the finite element method was made to describe the effect of introducing several thermal insulators (air, hemp wool, glass wool, rock wool, and extruded polystyrene) of different thicknesses (5 cm, 10 cm, and 15 cm) on the heat transfer through the building’s envelope under different climatic conditions. For the stationary regime, the summer period was chosen on August 7th, 2019, at 17 h, while the winter period was opted on January 1st, 2020, at 7 h. Otherwise, for the transitional regime, the summer period was chosen from August 1st to 8th, 2019, and the winter period from January first to 8th, 2020. The physical model analyzes the temperature variation at the different layers of the wall. It depends on the indoor temperature, the instantaneous climatic conditions of the outdoor air, solar radiations, and the thermal properties of the building’s envelope. The results show that the air gap is a good thermal insulator; it acts as a damper of temperature and heat flux.